Our Family
by candaceFABULOUS
Summary: Sara and Nick's Family.
1. Meet Our Family

Title: Our Family  
  
Author: Candace  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Pairings: N/S  
  
Summary: Sara and Nick's family.  
  
Spoilers: None.  
  
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
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Sara woke up to a noise that she had come to love over the past 3 years. It was the noise that was better than any alarm or any wake-up call.  
  
As she stepped out of bed, she glanced down and saw Nick sleeping. `I'm so lucky' she thought to herself.  
  
As she walked out of the bedroom she shared with her husband to the newly painted pink and yellow room of her daughter, Elle, the noise Sara had declared her favorite became louder.  
  
"Good-morning honey" Sara said as she saw Elle awake in her bed.  
  
Elle was a beautiful three-year old with curly blonde hair that framed her tiny face perfectly, and ended right below her chin. Her eyes were as blue as the sea. She was the exact opposite of her parents.  
  
In response, Elle just happily laughed as she played with the hair on top of the head of the Barbie that Grissom had bought her for her third birthday. She never let that doll out of her sight.  
  
Sara picked up Elle out of her toddler bed, and brought her back to her bedroom. As she sat Elle down next to her sleeping father, she heard her other favorite noise.  
  
"Sit right here Elle, I'll be right back. And don't wake Daddy up." Before she left the room, Sara turned around and saw her daughter slowly making her way over to her father.  
  
Right as Sara turned towards her son's room, she heard Nick yell "What the.. Elle! Good morning sweetie!"  
  
Sara laughed to herself as she turned into her son's room. She saw Harrison playing in the middle of the floor with the blocks that Catherine and Lindsey had bought him for his third birthday.  
  
"Hi Harrison. How long have you been awake?"  
  
Harrison looked just like how Sara has pictured him. He had dark brown hair that was recently cut short to keep him cool during the hot summer weather. His eyes were as dark as night. He looked identical to his parents, mainly Nick.  
  
Harrison, not knowing what to answer, just laughed playfully and held a red block up to his mother to show her what he had been doing. Sara took the block, set it down on the floor with all of the others, picked up her son, and brought him to her bedroom.  
  
When she stepped into her room, she saw Nick and Elle playing around on the bed. Harrison tried to wiggle his way out of Sara's arms. He wanted to play too.  
  
Harrison leaped onto the bed to join in on the game his father and twin sister were playing. There were no rules, just to tickle each other and have a good time. As Elle leaned back in laughter, she came close to hitting her head on the corner of the night-stand.  
  
"Elle!! Be careful. I don't want to take you to the emergency room today" Sara said, as a warning to Elle, and also to Nick.  
  
Elle just looked up at her mother, and immediately started tickling her father. Sara just laughed in amusement, as she leaned against her bedroom door frame. How a tiny three year old had so much power over grown man was beyond her.  
  
"Oh, you think this is funny Sara? Do you really?" Nick said, as he darted out of bed towards his wife.  
  
"No, Nick. Not at all." Sara said, in between fits of laughter.  
  
The Stokes twins had watched what their father was doing. After they realized it wasn't anything interesting, they went back to tickling each other.  
  
"Good morning Sara" Nick whispered, before he leaned down to give her a quick peck on the lips.  
  
"And good morning to you Nick" Sara replied, as they broke away from each other.  
  
Sara and Nick turned away from each other to watch their children playing with each other.  
  
"I never thought I'd be this lucky" Sara whispered, still watching her children.  
  
Nick turned back to face her.  
  
"I never would have doubted it."  
  
THE END.  
  
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	2. Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.

This chapter takes place a little less than a year from the last chapter.

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"Mommy! Mommy!" Elle called from her room. 

Sara jumped to her feet at the call. She slipped on her robe, and headed down the hallway. As she stood in the doorway, she felt something hit at the back of her legs.

"Harrison? Honey, why are you up?" Sara said, as she bent down to her son's eye level.

"I heard Elle scream, and I wanted to check and see if she was OK" 

"Harrison, you're such a poophead!" Elle said. She'd become more dramatic since Greg bought her a trunk full of dress-up clothes.

"Elle? Why did you call for me?" Sara questioned.

"I wanted someone to play dress-up with" Elle said innocently.

Sara saw Elle eyeing the trunk, and knew it was way too early for anyone, even the Stokes households drama queen, to be playing dress up. Sara picked her daughter up right as she was reaching for the latch to open the trunk.

"Hey Elle, why don't you and Harrison go wake Daddy up, and then he'll play dress up with you?" Elle pondered this for a moment, and then her eyes got wide at the idea.

"Yeah!" Both twins screamed.

Sara trailed behind as the twins, who had turned four years old the day before, ran for the bedroom they knew their father was sleeping in. As Sara entered the room, she saw her twins devising a plan.

"Ok Elle, I'm going to go up by Daddy's head, and I'm going to count to three. Now, you sit on Daddy's back and then we'll...." Sara smiled as she watched her children conspire against her husband. Sara knew she should stop whatever was going to happen, but truly, she wanted to see what they were going to down.

"Elle, are you ready?"

"Yeah, Harrison."

"Ok.. One.. Two.. Three!!"

Once they reached three, Harrison bent forward to get as close as he could to his fathers ear and Elle jumped forward and was right in front of Nick as they screamed "DADDY!"

Nick jumped up, startled, at the loud noise that woke him up. He jumped up so quickly, that him and Harrison almost hit heads, causing Sara to gasp and for Nick to look up at her.

"Hi Mommy"

"Hi Daddy"

"Hi Daddy!" Elle said, wanting to be included in the exchange of greetings.

"Well, hello there Elle. You're up early." 

"No, they're not Daddy. Its almost 11." Sara said, matter-of-factly.

Nick groaned at this. He had only slept 4 hours, since Elle had woken up at 6 screaming for a cup of juice. It took him another hour to recover from the scream. He had no idea how his daughter had so much energy.

"Whose hungry for breakfast?" Sara said, trying to find a way to get her children out of the bedroom so that Nick could catch a few more minutes of sleep.

"No, no Mommy. I, Daddy, will be making breakfast for the Stokes family today." Nick said, knowing he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep not until maybe next week after those screams. Nick looked at his kids. "What do you guys want?"

"Chocolate chocolate chip pancakes!" Both screamed.

"Thats a very difficult meal to make. And only certain people can get chocolate chocolate chip pancakes. They usually have to be twins.. about 4 years old.. " At the description, Elle and Harrison's tiny arms shot up and started flailing around.

"Mommy, do you know anyone like that?" Nick asked, hoping his wife would realize that he wanted to tease their children a bit.

"4 years old?? Twins??" Sara looked at Harrison and Elle, then back to Nick, and simply stated "Nope."

"Mommy!!!" Elle said, in her signature whiny voice.

"What, honey?" Sara asked, feigning innocence.

"Me and Harrison are twins!!" 

"Yeah, and we're four years old." Harrison added.

"Wait.. are you sure?" Nick asked.

"Daddy!!" Elle said, her voice becoming more whiny as she became more frustrated. 

"Mommy, I think we should investigate."

"Ok, Daddy." 

Nick walked up to Elle, Sara to Harrison. They stood in front of their kids, nodded at each other, and began their 'investigation.' Nick looked through Elle's longer curls, and Sara examined Harrison's face.

"What do you think, Mommy?"

"Well, I think these two are definitaly twins."

"Yes, and they are four years old."

"See? We told you." Harrison said.

"Ok, well, why don't you and Daddy go start on those pancakes, and me and Elle will get ready for today." Sara said, taking her daughter's tiny hands, with the nails painted a sparkly pink, thanks to Lindsey.

"Haha, Elle has to take a bath!" Elle turned around, and gave him a glare that Nick could only figure was from Sara. 

"Hey, Harrison, once Elle's done with her bath, guess whose next?" Sara said, making sure Elle didn't feel bad.

"Umm.. Daddy?" Harrison answered, now getting a look from Nick.

"Nope buddy, it'd be you. While the girls get all clean and pretty, we're going to go start breakfast. And once they're done, we'll be getting all clean and pretty."

Sara walked out of the bedroom and made her way to the bathroom, with Elle right behind her. As she entered the bathroom, she could hear Harrison say "But Daddy, boys don't get pretty."

'Today will be a long day... fun, but long.' Sara thought to herself, as she filled up the bathtub with water.

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I feel like these chapters are so short, but thats the way it is. I know it sort of ended abruptly, but I promise you I'll have more soon. Please, read and review!


	3. Getting Ready

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
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After Elle, Harrison, Nick and Sara had showered and gotten dressed, Elle ran into the bathroom as she watched Sara apply the last of her make-up.  
  
"Mommy?"  
  
"Yes, Elle?"  
  
"Do you think, since today is my birthday party, that I could wear a little make-up?"  
  
"I don't know Elle. Only big girls that promise not to dirty their new dress chasing Greg around get to wear make-up." Sara knew that the highlight of most of the parties for Elle was chasing Greg until he was completely out of breath.  
  
"I promise" Elle said, her eyes growing wide as Sara pulled out the tube of lip gloss that she got for her birthday from Lindsey.   
  
"Ok, only a little bit. And we're not going to make a habit of this make-up wearing. Only today, because its your birthday" Sara said, as she applied a small amount of the shiny gloss to her daughter's tiny lips. "Ok, there you go, sweetie." With a little help from Sara, Elle propped herself up and looked in the mirror of the medicine cabinet.  
  
"Ooooh, its so pretty" Elle said, as she kept smacking her lips together, enjoying the feeling of the gloss.  
  
"Now let me get finished, or we'll never get out of here." Catherine had decided that since Nick and Sara's house was too small for the party, that she would have it at her house.   
  
Elle walked out of the bathroom into the living-room where her father and twin brother were sitting. She sat down, practically on top of Nick. She grabbed his face in her hands and brought it close to hers.   
  
"Daddy, look."  
  
"What am I looking at, sweetie?" At this, Elle smacked her lips together for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last two minutes. "Oh Elle, it looks absolutely beautiful on you. Did Mommy do that?"  
  
"Yeah, she said since today was my birthday party I could wear some."  
  
"And she also had to promise not to ruin her dress while torturing Greg." Sara said, walking into the living-room. Nick laughed at the comment, remembering the Christmas party where Elle didn't leave Greg alone. Even when he went to the bathroom, she sat outside the door waiting patiently for him to come out.  
  
She marveled at how nice her family looked. It wasn't every day that they all got dressed up nicely.   
  
Elle was the first to be dressed. She had on a brand new dress that Sara had bought especially for the occasion. It was a pink, sleeveless dress that ended right below her knee. The bottom of the dress had yellow and purple embroidered flowers, which matched the flowers on her new white shoes. Elle's least favorite part of the outfit was the white stockings Sara insisted on her wearing. Her curls had been controlled, and some were held loosely on top of her head with a pink clip. She epitomized the ideal four year old girl.  
  
Sara had tried her best to make Harrison's outfit match Elle's somewhat. Harrison had on a black jacket, with matching slacks. The shirt Harrison wore underneath the jacket was the same shade of pink as Elle's dress. Sara thought ahead of time, and instead of buying shoes that had to be tied, she opted for black Velcro shoes. Nick had told her not to buy shoes that had to be tied because Harrison always seemed to get them untied, and eventually he walked around with no shoes on. His hair had been brushed back, and after much begging and pleading, Nick put a little touch of his aftershave on his son. Harrison looked like the ideal four year old boy.  
  
Nick had worn clothes that had not been newly bought, since Sara had neglected to buy anything for him due to the fact that she simply forgot and mainly focused on the twins. He had on a blue sports coat, that matched his shoes perfectly. His khaki slacks and white shirt were crisp, since he had worn them only once before. Poor Nick reeked of aftershave because after he put some on Harrison, he slipped and spilled the rest of it all over Nick. He had taken two showers to rid himself of the stench, but nothing seemed to work. His hair was slicked back.   
  
Sara's skirt was khaki, which she purposely wore to match Nick's. 'Ok, so I'm a matching addict. Who cares?' Sara thought to herself. Her white button-up shirt had purple embroidery on the bottom, which had matched Elle's dress flawlessly. Sara decided to wear longer, blue jacket over her ensemble. Her hair had been left curly, due to the lack of time she had in the bathroom, and she pulled it up into a simple pony-tail. Diamond studs shone in her ears, a birthday gift from Nick. Her shoes were simple and comfortable, since she knew she'd be chasing Elle and Harrison around all day, keeping them away from any breakables of Catherine's.   
  
"Sara, you look great. Hey guys, doesn't Mommy look great?  
  
"Yeah" Harrison answered, really not paying attention because hair bored him.   
  
"Mommy, your hair is curly like mine!" Elle said, fascinated how her mother's hair could go from straight to curly.   
  
"Thank you Harrison, and yes, Elle, my hair is curly. Are we ready to go?" Sara asked, wanting to get to Catherine's early so that she didn't have to set up for the party all by herself.  
  
"I think so. Elle, Harrison, ready?"  
  
They both nodded and jumped up off the couch.  
  
As Harrison and Elle grabbed onto their father's hands, Sara checked the stove and made sure the back door and windows were locked. Sara turned back around, and gave Nick the thumbs-up.  
  
"Ok, lets go!" Nick said, trying to sound enthusiastic, although he knew the day ahead of him was going to involve a lot of "No!"s "Elle!"s and "Harrison!"s.  
  
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	4. Balloons and Stockings

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
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As the Stokes family pulled up in front of Catherine's house, Sara could tell she was too late to help Catherine out with decorations. The front of the house had balloons taped to the front, swaying in the slight breeze. Pink and blue streamers hung over the door, and on the front of the door was a sign, which from the looks of it, had to be made by Lindsey. It read "Happy Birthday Elle and Harrison!"

As they stepped up to the house, Harrison pulled on the bottom of Sara's skirt.

"Mommy, I don't have any lip stuff on. Is it OK if I chase Greg around?"

Nick, hearing Harrison's question, turned around and said "Har, if you didn't chase Greg around, we'd all think something was wrong." With that, he winked at Sara, at rang the doorbell. As they waited for someone to open the door, Sara fixed Harrison's hair and smoothed out the back of Elle's dress, which had gotten slightly wrinkled during the car ride. 

"Hey you guys! Oh my gosh, Elle you look so pretty! I love your dress! Harrison, you look so cute! Look at -- "

"Hey Lindsey, take a breath and let us come in. Then you can drown these two with compliments." Nick said, tickling his daughter in the side, causing her to squirm in his arms.

"Lindsey, are they.. Oh great! You guys are here!" Catherine said, walking in from the kitchen to the living room. Catherine looked great for someone who had spent the entire morning and the night before preparing for the party. She had cream pants on, with a dark red tank top and matching boots. Sara could smell something throughout the house, and really hoped that Catherine hadn't cooked. 

"Cath, you didn't cook did you? I told you to let me help set up, and you didn't even let me. And if you cooked…"

"Don't worry, Sara. Lindsey and her friends helped me set up last night, and me and Linds did the finishing touches this morning. And no way did I cook, I ordered out."

Catherine looked down from Sara, and saw Harrison all dressed up, holding onto Nick's hand. 

"Hey Harrison. You look so nice." Catherine went to give him a hug. After she stepped out of the embrace, she said "And you smell good, too. Maybe you can give Greg a few pointers on how to put the right amount of cologne on." Harrison laughed even at the mere mention of Greg's name.

Catherine stood back up, walked over to Nick and held her arms out. "Hi Elle. Want to go help me in the kitchen?" Elle looked over to Nick, and after him nodding and letting her know it was OK, she made her way out of Nick's arms and over to Catherine. 

Nick followed them through the kitchen and outside, where Warrick, Greg, and one of Greg's girlfriends were. Sara, Harrison and Lindsey were left in the living room, with an awkward silence.

"Mommy, can I go outside with Daddy and Uncle Greg?" Harrison asked, trying to undo the buttons on his jacket.

"Yes, you can" Sara said, helping him with the buttons "But you have to let Daddy know you're out there, and no going in the front yard."

"Ok Mom." Harrison said, as he ran outside.

"So Linds, how'd you do in school this year?" Sara said, trying to make conversation with the young girl as she picked up Harrison's jacket off the floor.

"OK, I guess. I'm just glad its summer." Lindsey said, as she led Sara into the kitchen.

As Sara placed Harrison's jacket over the back of a chair, she saw Elle sitting on the counter dangling her feet and itching her knees. She had complained about the stockings the whole ride to Catherine's house, and as much as Sara knew they were bothering her, she just had to keep them on for a little while. It completed her outfit. 

"Mommy, I want to take these off" Elle said, pulling on the stockings.

"Not yet sweetie, I want you to look nice for a little while." Sara answered, getting a pout from her daughter. 

"Ok girls, lets go outside and see what those boys are up to" Catherine said, helping Elle off the counter and leading them out onto the patio.

'Wow, Catherine has really gone all out for them' Sara thought to herself, as she took in all there was to take in. Catherine had hung Christmas lights all along her patio roof, and balloons were everywhere. She could see Greg detaching one for Harrison, a blue one - Harrison's favorite color. On the tables were centerpieces that were paper flowers, and in the center of each flower was a Hershey Kiss. Sara had been mesmerized that she hadn't even realized Harrison standing right in front of her, laughing.

"Mommy! Mommy! Look at my hair!" 

As Sara looked down, she saw that her son's hair was sticking out. It had a strong resemblance to Greg's coif. 

"Harrison, how'd you do that?" To answer his mother's question, he took the balloon that Sara had seen Greg getting before, and rubbed it against his hair, causing it to stick out. Harrison just laughed as he went back to where Greg was sitting.

"Hi! I'm Carly James, Greg's friend. You must be…." A short, blonde bubbly girl jumped in front of Sara. She had on a jean skirt with a matching jacket, and an orange tee underneath. Her feet were dressed in sandals, with a heel that had to be at least 4 inches tall. Sara was amazed at how this girl made her way over to where Greg was sitting to where Sara was without falling on her face.

"Oh, hi, I'm Sara. Sara Stokes." Sara introduced herself, still somewhat dazed from how peppy this girl was. She reminded her of all the girls Sara hated in high school.

"Hi Sara. This party is for your twins, right? Harrison and.. And…" the girl said, somewhat embarrassed that she couldn't remember the names that she was told just moments ago.

"Harrison and Elle. Yes, my twins. One's over there with Greg" Sara said, pointing to where they were still playing with the balloon "And Elle's over there, with my husband and Warrick."

"Oh, that's your little girl? She's absolutely adorable. I haven't met Harrison yet, but he looks just like your husband." And with that, Hurricane Carly was gone.

"Hey hey Sara."

"Hey hey Greg. I met your friend. Carly, her name is. She's very…." Sara said, not wanting to choose the wrong word to describe someone Greg seemed to like enough to bring her to meet all of his co-workers.

"Amazing? Is that the word? Yeah, she rocks my world."

With a laugh, Sara said "Yep, she's something."

"I'm trying to lose Harrison for a second. I need to use the bathroom, and I don't need him camping out in front of the door like Elle did." Greg said, recalling the time when he had too much of the chili taco dip, and was in the bathroom for 45 minutes while Elle patiently waited outside. 

"I think you can go now. He seems to have taken an interest in your friend." Sara said, as Greg turned and looked at Harrison using the balloon on Carly's blonde tresses. 

As Greg walked into the house, Sara made her way over to where Warrick and Nick were standing, talking about some football game that was on the night before. Sara remembered Nick screaming at the television screen when the team he was rooting for did something Nick didn't appreciate, and Elle waking up, crying. 

Sara sat next to Elle, who was still fidgeting with her stockings.

"Mommy, can't I take them off now? I've seen everyone." Elle pleaded.

"Not until Uncle Grissom sees you, and once he does, you can take them off and wear them on your head." Sara said, hoping that if she took something that was bothering Elle and made it funny, it would make her happier.

"Can I make Greg wear them on his head? That'd be funnier." Elle said, even making Sara laugh.

"You can try and see if Greg will wear them." Sara said, amused by how much Greg had amused her kids. She was happy that they enjoyed all of the people they worked with. They weren't as much co-workers as they were extended family. 

"Want to go with me and see Harrison?" 

"No Mommy, I think I'll stay here for a little while. Lindsey is bringing out dolls and we're going to play with them."

"Ok baby." Sara said, kissing the top of her daughter's head.

"Mommy?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you get me something to drink? I'm thirsty." Elle said.

"Sure honey, what do you want?"

"Juice?"

"Ok, I'll go see what Catherine has." As Sara got up from where she was sitting, Nick pulled on her arm.

"Is she alright?" Nick asked, worried about his daughter.

"Eh, I think she's a little tired and a little cranky. She's used to sleeping now. And she's still complaining about the stockings. I'm going to get her some juice."

"Sara, I know how much you want our kids to be perfect, but I really don't think anyone will care if she doesn't have stockings on."

"Yeah, I guess your right. Want to get her for me?"

"Yeah" Nick said. As Sara walked into the house, on a mission for juice, Nick scooped his daughter up in his arms "Baby, you want to go inside with me? Mommy is getting your juice and then you can take those stockings off."

"Ok Daddy" Elle said, turning around in his arms so that she was facing him and linking her hands behind his neck. As Nick walked into the house, he passed Grissom who had just arrived.

"Hey Gris"

"Hey Nick, is she sleeping?" Grissom said, referring to the little blonde bundle in his arms. 

"I think she might be falling asleep, you can see if she's awake." 

"Ok" As Nick turned around so Elle was facing him, he noticed her eyes partially open. "Hey Elle. Happy Birthday" He said as he kissed her forehead.

"Thanks Uncle Grissom" And with that, she was out like a light.

"Sara, she's asleep." 

"Yeah, I figured she would so I made up Lindsey's bed so that she could sleep for a little bit. Just go set her down in there, and don't turn the light off or close the door."

"OK."

As Nick laid her down on the bed, Elle said "Daddy?"

"Yes, Elle?"

"Do you think when I wake up I can still put my stockings on Greg's head?" Elle asked, honestly worried if she would miss out on her chance to play with Greg.

"I'm sure he'd loved that, baby." Nick kissed her on the cheek, and walked back outside. 

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	5. Hair Clips and Cake

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
I've gotten such a great response to this story. I've decided to continue this story, which was meant to only be one chapter long. But since everyone seems to be enjoying it, I'll continue until you all tell me to stop. ............................................................................ ...........….  
  
A few hours later, after everyone had ate, Elle woke up from her nap. Her hair had fallen out of the clip Sara had put in, and the back of her dress had endless amounts of wrinkles. Sara silently cursed Nick for not taking her shoes off when she saw all of the runs in Elle's stockings, caused by her tossing and turning in Lindsey's bed.   
  
As Elle walked outside onto the patio where the rest of the party was, she was welcomed with yells and greetings from everyone. When Nick saw that there were no more chairs for her to sit in, he picked her up and placed her on his lap. She snuggled into his embrace, still sleepy.  
  
"Hey sweetie, are you hungry?" Sara asked. Elle just nodded no.Sara knew that her daughter never ate right after waking up from a nap, but she just wanted to make sure.  
  
"Hey Elle, look what I did to Greg's hair." Harrison called from the other side of the table, wanting to show Elle what he did while she slept. Elle looked over at Greg, and noticed a bunch of clips Lindsey had on her dresser, now haphazardly placed all over Greg's head. Elle laughed, and made her way out of Nick's embrace so that she could touch Greg's hair.  
  
"Elle! Elle!" Greg yelped "Watch the hair. Your brother spent a lot of time to make it look just right, and I'm sure he'd be mad if you messed it up."   
  
"Yeah, Elle, be careful!" Harrison said, popping out from behind Greg's head. He had just fixed one of the clips so that the hair stuck out more.  
  
"Hey Harrison, keep the volume down a little. And don't yell at your sister." Nick said, picking at the chips still left on the table from before.   
  
"Ok, is everyone ready to sing 'Happy Birthday' to our favorite twins?" Catherine shouted from the kitchen. She had pre-ordered this cake to have both blue and pink flowers and airplanes. Catherine knew if she had only flowers, Harrison would have carried on for hours. The colors perfectly fit the whole look of the party. Blue and pink streamers, balloons, table-cloths, napkins, plates. Everything fit perfectly together.  
  
As Catherine brought out the cake with, of course, blue and pink number '4' candles, Elle jumped into Sara's lap, and Harrison into Nick's. Nick had bent down to pick up a napkin Catherine had dropped, and for what seemed to be the hundredth time today, Sara was trying her hardest to take the wrinkles out of Elle's dress. Warrick and Grissom had begun a conversation about something or other, and Greg and Carly seemed very much interested in each other. Lindsey had run inside to get a pony-tail holder for Elle's hair. Catherine had run inside to get a lighter to light the candles. No one was paying attention to the twins.  
  
Before the candles were even lit, four tiny little hands had dug into the cake. Elle giggled with delight as she ate the cake without stopping for a breath. Harrison laughed as Elle shoved the food into her tiny mouth, and proceeded to do the same. Nick and Sara both looked at them to see what was amusing them so much.  
  
"Elle!" Sara shouted.  
  
"Harrison! Hey Harrison.. calm down there." Nick said, trying to pry his son's tiny hands out of the center of the cake. The rest of the party had turned to see what all the commotion was about, and when they saw, they laughed in amusement as two parents were trying to control two four year olds.  
  
"Oh Elle, you have cake all over your dress." Sara said, looking at her daughter with disgust.  
  
"Hey Sar, take a look at Harrison's -" Nick said, until he was interrupted by cake being shoved in his mouth. He looked at Harrison, who found it incredibly amusing and then had a look of nervousness. "Harrison… Harrison.. Harrison. Haven't we taught you to use forks when you want cake?"   
  
As Sara was about to say something, she felt something sticky running down her face. She had seen that Elle had taken a handful of cake, and placed it messily on top of her head.   
  
"Elle!" Sara said, speechless.  
  
"Mommy" Nick said to his wife "I think these kids need to be taught a lesson."   
  
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I know this was a shorter chapter, but I'm kind of having writer's block. Any suggestions are welcome! Please, read and review.   
  
   
  
  


	6. Clean Ups

joey d.a. - Its totally OK if you don't have Nick be the father. I just really didn't want Grissom to be the father because, c'mon, don't we have enough of those G/S stories? A future N/S story of yours will be great, I'm sure.  
  
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
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Nick and Sara had washed the twins off in Catherine's bathroom, then headed towards Lindsey's room to change them. Sara said "You two need to learn that you can't just dig your hands in cake whenever you see one. If you would have asked for someone to cut a piece for you, we wouldn't be doing this" as Lindsey brought sweats for Elle to change into, and t-shirt for Harrison to put on. "Thanks, Linds."  
  
"No problem, Sara. Do you guys have to leave now?" Lindsey asked, hoping she would still have time to play with the twins.  
  
"In a little while we'll be leaving. These two are starting to get sleepy." Nick answered for Sara, helping Harrison change his shirt.  
  
"Daddy, I'm not sleepy." Harrison said, as the t-shirt was pulled over his head. "Lindsey! This shirt has the Power Puff Girls on it!"  
  
"Sorry Harrison, but that's all I had. Its not like I have t-shirts for boys just lying around."   
  
"Its OK, Linds. Harrison is just in a bad mood because he's getting tired." Sara said, emerging from the bathroom with Elle, who was now dressed in light pink sweats, with no stockings.  
  
"Mommy, can I go put my stockings on Greg's head now?" Elle said, remembering the compromise her and her mother had made earlier in the day.  
  
"Sure, but if Greg says no, its no. No argument, you hear me Elle?" Sara said, as she hung her cleaned dress on a hanger to dry and set it on the doorknob.   
  
"Ok Mommy. Hey Harrison, want to help?" Elle said, hoping that her and her brother would be able to get the stockings onto Greg's head.  
  
"Sure!" Harrison said, jumping off the seat that was at Lindsey's desk. Him and Elle pushed passed their parents, and headed towards the living room where the knew Greg was sitting with Warrick, watching some show on MTV.   
  
"I never thought I could be this tired just from being at a party" Sara said, as she sat down on Lindsey's bed. Catherine had heard this comment, and remarked "Yeah, a party where you have two four year olds running around. If you want, you can rest a little bit and I'll keep an eye on them."  
  
"No thanks, Cath, its OK. I think if I fall asleep, I'll never wake up." Sara said, getting up with a little help from Nick.  
  
As the three walked towards the living room, they saw Carly walking towards the bathroom. "You guys might not want to walk out there just yet" she said, almost out of breath. "Your kids are on an energy high or something."  
  
Sara looked at Nick, and he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her forward. "Come on, Nicky. Catherine did say she'd watch them for a little while.."   
  
"No Sara, they're our kids." Nick said, wanting just as much as Sara to go back and collapse on Lindsey's bed, but didn't want to put Catherine out.  
  
As they entered the living room, Greg called out to them. "Sara!! Nick!! Get these animals off of me. Come on, you guys! Please? Please Nick! Sara! Please!!"   
  
"Sorry Greggo, but you built up a reputation with these two that you're Mr. Fun, and you don't want to disappoint them, do you?" Nick said, walking over and sitting on the couch opposite them. At that moment, Harrison went right in front of Greg's face and put on the pout that he had mastered and knew would get him anything he wanted.  
  
"Ugh, OK, but I'm only wearing these stockings on my head for 5 minutes. Nicholas, start the countdown." Greg held up the white stockings with the runs that Sara cringed at, and when Nick said "Go", Greg put them on his head.   
  
Catherine reappeared from the kitchen at that moment. "Oh my gosh, Greg, they finally got to you, huh?" Greg just nodded. He hated this, but he loved the happiness it brought to the twins. "Oh, I just have to get my camera. Don't go anywhere!" Catherine ran back into the kitchen, got out the disposable camera she had used to take a picture of Elle sleeping on Nick's shoulder and the aftermath of the twins' cake brigade.   
  
She snapped the picture, with Elle and Harrison on either side of his head. Nick, forgetting that he was supposed to be counting, ran and got his camera out of Sara's bag. He took a picture, too. Nick knew that he would never see this happen again.  
  
Just as Nick snapped the picture, Carly emerged from the bathroom. "Oh Greg!" she gasped. "I never thought you, uh, enjoyed that look. Its, um, different, I guess." Everyone just laughed as Greg's face turned from an annoyed pink, to a utterly embarrassed red.  
  
"Greg, that's a beautiful shade of red your sporting." Warrick said, coming in from outside after a discussion about the spider Grissom had found enjoying the cake that had been viciously mauled by the twins.  
  
"I did it all by myself!" Elle said.  
  
"No you didn't. I helped out, Warrick." Harrison said, not wanting Elle to have all the glory.  
  
"Well, you both did a fine job. It's a good look for you, Greg." Warrick said, just as Elle leaned back on him and yawned.  
  
"Oh, I think its time for us to go home." Nick said, witnessing his daughter's yawn.  
  
"Yeah, these two have been up since early. And tomorrow, we're going and getting them signed up for preschool."  
  
"Mommy, I'm not tired. Only Elle is." Harrison said, watching his sister's eyes droop as she made herself comfortable on her Warrick Pillow.  
  
"No I'm not Harrison. Mommy, can't we stay longer?" Elle said, trying to open her eyes and make herself wake back up.  
  
"I'm sorry honey, but we need to go. Look, even Uncle Grissom has fallen asleep." Sara said, pointing at Grissom, who, wanting to help out the young parents, feigned sleep and leaned his head back on the chair he was sitting in.   
  
Harrison, realizing it must've been late if Grissom was sleeping, got up and walked into his mother's open arms.  
  
"I'll get her, War." Nick said, walking over and picking up Elle, who had fallen asleep in a matter of minutes.  
  
Harrison, who was almost asleep, rested his head on Sara's shoulder.   
  
Sara went over and thanked Catherine for the party.  
  
"Cath, it really was great. We had a really great time."   
  
"Oh, Sara, it was really no problem. I had a great time, too, and so did Lindsey. We really should do this more often."  
  
Sara and Nick said goodbye to Greg, Carly, Lindsey, and lastly Grissom. Warrick had helped carry out the presents, that, by request of Catherine's, hadn't been opened yet. Carly had gotten Elle's dress and Sara laid it on two free fingers.   
  
"Hey Uncle Grissom, I thought you were sleeping" Harrison said, as they were leaving.  
  
"Oh, I was, but I wanted to say goodbye to you, so Lindsey woke me up" Grissom said, winking at Lindsey and kissing Harrison on the forehead.  
  
"Thanks again, Cath." Nick said, as he said good-bye to everyone.  
  
"Your very welcome, Nick. These two are great. You and Sara did good." Catherine said, brushing stray strands of hair out of Elle's face.  
  
"Thanks Cath, see you soon." Nick said, walking out to the car.  
  
After getting Elle and Harrison buckled in and getting the bag of presents in the trunk, Nick shook his friend's hand, and Sara kissed him on the cheek.  
  
"Whew, I'm tired." Sara said.  
  
"Well, you better get enough sleep. We have to get these kids up tomorrow and get them ready to sign up for preschool." Nick said, as they pulled away from Catherine's house.   
  
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Woo! Preschool! I know a little more about preschool then a party that I made up, so I should do better with this. Please, read and review! 


	7. Preschool

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
Sorry for no update in Guam years, but I went on vacation with my family, and it took me a little while to get back into the groove of things. I know I'm usually an update whore, but I hope this chapter makes you forgive me. ..................................................................... ..................…..  
  
Sara woke up extra early to make sure the twins were all ready to go and that they weren't late for preschool. She had cried the night before to Nick, about how she felt like she had just given birth and that it went by too quick for her. She didn't want her babies leaving her and being with someone else all day. Sara knew it was only for two and a half hours, Mondays and Wednesdays, but she didn't want them to need her and her not be there.  
  
Sara had gone out the weekend before and bought both Elle and Harrison brand new outfits for the occasion. She wanted them to look their very best, and after going through all of the clothes they had, she realized that nothing was good enough and decided that her only choice was to go out and buy them new clothes. For Elle, Sara had bought a jean skort with a matching vest. Both had pink stitching, which gave Sara the inspiration to buy a pink tee to go underneath the vest. Nick had complained to her over how much pink she made Elle wear, but Sara reasoned that she was a girl and she had the right to wear as much pink as she wanted. Or as much as Sara wanted. Elle's hair had been pulled back into a ponytail with a pink ponytail holder.   
  
Nick had set his foot down with Harrison wearing the pink shirt Sara had picked up for him. "He just wore pink to Catherine's" Nick said "No man should wear pink more than once a week." Sara had told him he was being stubborn, and told him to go return the pink shirt and buy one he liked. He came back with the exact same style shirt, just navy blue. With the navy blue shirt, he had khaki slacks that were bought for him by Nick's mother while on a shopping spree with her grandchildren. Completing the outfit were Harrison's blue shoes. After much disagreement, Sara had given in and spiked Harrison's hair because he wanted to look like Greg.   
  
After the twins said goodbye to Nick, they got in the car and Sara drove them towards the preschool. Sara had even gotten a little dressed up, wanting to let the teachers know that these kids came from a good family. She had put on khaki capris and a maroon blouse, with matching sandals. She had blown out her hair, and placed her sunglasses on the top of her head. She pulled up in front of the school and turned around towards the twins sitting in the backseat.  
  
"OK, are you guys ready?" Sara asked, silently wishing they would ask her to take them home and they would sit on the couch, watching a movie and eating ice-cream, all snuggled up in their pajamas.  
  
"Yeah, Mom." Harrison said. "Can we go in now?"   
  
Sara nodded, and they all got out of the car. Elle ran up to Sara waiting on the sidewalk, and grabbed her hand. Sara could tell Elle was more nervous than her brother, and squeezed her hand reassuringly. She looked down at her, and Elle smiled. Sara smiled back, and watched as Harrison ran ahead of them and stood on the steps in front of the school.  
  
"Come on Mom!" Harrison said, waving his arms telling them to hurry up.   
  
"Alright Harrison, hold on a second" Sara shouted, as Harrison sat on the step, obviously annoyed with his mother. Sara bent down to Elle. "OK sweetie, are you ready?"  
  
Elle looked at her, at the school, then back at Sara. "I'm ready, Mommy." Elle said, and they started walking towards Harrison together.   
  
Once they reached him, Harrison stood up. "Its about time!" He said, and turned on his heel and walked towards the school. He turned around, apparently becoming more nervous, and ran towards his mother and grabbed her hand.   
  
Sara walked in, Harrison on her left and Elle on her right. She knew they had to go, but she wanted so much to turn around and bring them back home to where she knew Nick was, probably sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal. As they reached the room that was assigned to the twins, Sara looked through the door window. Room 22A.  
  
"Mommy, what can you see?" Harrison said, anxious and nervous all at the same time. He was too short to look through the window, but wanted to know what there was to see. The teacher had seen Sara peeking through the window, and walked over and opened it up. She saw a tall, brunette woman standing there with two children at her sides. One, a beautiful blonde girl, and the other, a striking brunette boy. She knew just from the look of these two, that they were going to make an impression of her life, whether she wanted them to or not.  
  
"Hi, I'm Ms. DiMonda. And you are…" A perky brunette woman of about 40 was at the door, wearing a long tan skirt with a matching sweater, that had a crazy design on it. Bows were sticking out from all over the shirt.  
  
"Hi, I'm Sara Stokes. These are my twins, Elle and Harrison." When they heard their names, Elle and Harrison looked up and smiled. Ms. DiMonda had a smile that seemed warm and inviting, and all of the hesitation Sara had had disappeared the minute she met the teacher that would be teaching her children for the next six months.   
  
"Hi Elle. Hi Harrison. I'm Ms. DiMonda. Some of the other children are already here, if you want to go in and play." The twins looked up at Sara to make sure it was OK with her, and when she nodded encouragingly, they ran into the classroom.   
  
"Mrs. Stokes, I'm going to guess that this is your first time experiencing preschool with your children." Sara nodded, trying to figure out what this woman was getting at. "Well, I can assure you that they will be perfectly safe and if anything does arise, I will immediately contact you or your husband. I want you to know that I will treat your children, and every other child at this school, as if they were my own. Most parents are a little shaky the first few days, but its best for your children if you don't hang around too long. Usually that makes the children more nervous and if you want them to adjust properly, as I'm sure you do, you should leave soon."  
  
"Can I say goodbye to them first?" Sara said, feeling the tears forming around the brims of her eyes.  
  
"Sure, go right ahead." Ms. DiMonda said, then headed off to help a child who seemed to be having a fight with a paint brush.  
  
Sara figured it would be easier to say goodbye to Harrison first, since he seemed to be the most comfortable in the new setting. She saw him sitting on a rug that resembled a clock, and kneeled down. He propped himself up on her knees.   
  
"Har, I'm going to go home now. If you need anything, ask Ms. DiMonda, OK?"   
  
"OK, Mommy. I'll watch Elle for you."   
  
"Thanks baby." And with a quick kiss on the cheek, Harrison was off to play with a new friend.  
  
As Sara walked over to Elle, who was playing by herself with the dolls, Sara could feel a tear escape and cascade down her cheek. She knew it would be harder to say goodbye to Elle, who appeared to be having a harder time adjusting than her brother did.  
  
"Elle, honey, I'm going to get going." Elle looked up at her mother as she was feeding the baby doll.   
  
"Do you have to Mommy?" Sara could feel herself wanting to cry a river, but held back, knowing that she didn't want to have a breakdown in the middle of a preschool classroom.  
  
"Yeah, sweetie. Daddy's waiting for me at home, and I have to go get ready because Greg and Carly are coming over for dinner." Sara had remembered Nick inviting them over, and figured they would order out pizza or Chinese.  
  
"Ok Mommy, but your coming back to pick us up right?"   
  
"Of course, me and Daddy will come."   
  
Elle stood up, and gave her mother a hug around the neck. As Sara felt Elle's hug get tighter, she pulled her away, gave her a kiss and walked out of the classroom. Her daughter went back to feeding the doll. As Sara stepped out of the classroom, a little girl walked up to Elle and offered to help change the baby doll's clothes.  
  
Sara walked out of the school, and got in her car. She could feel her the tears pour out of her eyes, and she just cried for a little while. She hadn't realized how grown-up her kids were. Sara felt as though they didn't need her anymore. She knew deep down they still did, for food and clothes and a home, but she felt like they were growing up too fast.  
  
She pulled out of the school parking lot, and headed home. She knew Nick was waiting for her.   
  
Sara knew the quicker she got home, the quicker she could come back and pick up her babies.   
  
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Woohoo! Was it worth the wait? I hope so. I really worked so hard on this chapter, and I remember my mom being all weepy when my little brother went to preschool, and I just worked off of that. Please, read and review! 


	8. Flying Cats

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
You guys rock my socks with all of your great reviews. I don't really know where I'm going to go with this story (I promise - no one will die, get sick, injured - it's a happy story), but I guess I'll just go where the story takes me. ............................................................................ ...........….  
  
The two and a half hours the twins were at school seemed like an eternity for Sara. She just wanted them home, and she wanted them home now. From 10-11AM, she entertained herself by cleaning the entire house, top to bottom. She dusted every CD and DVD the family owned, something she only did when she was anxious or angry. This time she was anxious to pick up her twins. For the next hour, she sat in the living room, watched some talk-show and realized just how quiet it was when the twins weren't there. The occasional yelp came from Nick who was on the phone with Warrick. 'What could they be talking about?' Sara wondered. 'They just saw each other last night.'  
  
Sara figured since she only had a half hour before she got the kids, the only rational thing to do was to get ready to pick them up. She freshened up a bit - redid her makeup, brushed through her hair.   
  
"Nicky, I'm going to go pick up the twins." Sara said, picking up her keys and pocketbook off the kitchen table.  
  
"Honey, they don't need to be picked up for another 25 minutes. And the preschool is just down the street. Not even a 10 minute drive." Nick said, not paying attention to anything Warrick was saying.   
  
"I know, but I just don't want to get there late. I mean, what if there's some sort of accident and I can't get to them in time and the teacher leaves and they're all by themselves and…" Sara spoke without taking a single breath.  
  
"OK, OK. Do you want me to go with you?" Nick said, pulling the reciever away from his mouth. He knew well enough that arguing with her wouldn't get him anywhere.  
  
"Well, I did tell Elle that you were going to come."   
  
"Alright, hold on. War - yeah, I'm going to go with Sara. Yeah, its their first day. OK, thanks. Hey, do you want to come over tonight? We're having Greg and Carly over, you might as well come…Yeah, around 6. OK, bye."  
  
"Go put on a jacket and some shoes. I should've been gone 5 minutes ago." Sara said, ready to go and get her children.  
  
"Sara, its just down the street. And I'm pretty sure there's not going to be any traffic." Nick said, walking out of their bedroom with shoes on and his jacket in his hands. He opened the door for her, and she practically ran out to the car. He got in the driver's side, and started up the car.  
  
The ride to the preschool seemed to be the longest ride of her life, and once they pulled up, she didn't even let Nick stop the car before she jumped out. Sara did wait for him on the steps, and he grabbed her hand. She led him towards their classroom. They knocked on the door.  
  
"Mrs. Stokes, nice to see you again, although we still have another 15 minutes of class left." Ms. DiMonda said, realizing how nervous the young mother was. "Hello, I'm presuming you're Mr. Stokes?" She said, looking at Nick.  
  
Nick pried his hand out of Sara's grip, and shook Ms. DiMonda's hand. "Yes, I'm Mr. Stokes. Its nice to meet you. I know we're a little early, but we would rather be early than late."  
  
"Yes, Mr. Stokes. Of course, these are your children." Ms. DiMonda said, somewhat surprised at how every member of this family seemed to be strikingly handsome or beautiful. Usually families had an ugly duckling, but this family seemed to be perfect.  
  
"If you'd like to come in, you can help your children get their jackets on. But only this once. Next time, if you come early, you will have to wait outside."  
  
Sara glared at Ms. DiMonda, making her wonder if the thought she had before was entirely true. 'Sure, they're good-looking people' she thought. 'But maybe the wife's a little crazy.'  
  
"Hi Elle!" Nick said, walking over to his daughter who was coloring with some of her classmates. Sara, who had taken a detour to pick up their jackets, was right behind him.  
  
"Daddy!!" Elle said, throwing her crayon on the table and running over to her father. She clasped her hands together behind his neck, and he picked her up.   
  
"How'd you like school, sweetie?" He said, pulling her away from him so that he could look at her face.   
  
"It was OK, I made a new friend. Her name's Amy and she's got blonde hair like me, but its straight like Mommy's." Elle said, pointing to a little girl who was also coloring. At the call of her name, Amy looked up and waved. Elle waved back.  
  
"Hi Amy" Nick said, waving.  
  
"Hi!" The tiny girl said, getting up from her seat and walking over to them. "Are you Elle's daddy?"  
  
"Yep. Are you Elle's friend?" Nick said kneeling down to their level, making the two girls laugh.  
  
Sara, who had to drag Harrison away from the fire-truck he had become seemingly attached to, had walked up in time to meet Elle's new friend.  
  
"Hey Harrison" Nick said, standing up and turning around.  
  
"Hey Dad, want to come see this cool fire-truck they have here?" Harrison said, grabbing Nick's hand and pulling him over to where the fire-truck was located.  
  
"I'll see you later, Amy." Nick said, walking away.  
  
"Bye Elle's daddy."  
  
"Hey Elle" Sara said, walking over to her daughter and sitting in one of the seat's placed in the art center.   
  
"Hey Mommy, this is Amy. She's my new best friend." Elle said, wrapping her arm's around Amy's neck to give her a hug.  
  
"Oh no, Greg's going to be mad if you have a new best friend. You better not tell him, or who knows what will happen." Sara said, loosening Elle's grip on Amy's neck so that she could get her jacket on. Sara looked at the little girl standing next to Elle. "Hi, you're Amy?"  
  
"Yes, and you're Elle's mommy?"  
  
"Yes, I am. Did you guys have fun in school today?"  
  
"Oh yeah, we played in the kitchen area, and then we read a story and then we colored." Elle said, buttoning up her jacket.  
  
"I have to go, Elle. My mommy's here now. Bye Elle! Bye Elle's mommy!" Amy said, as she walked towards where her mother was standing holding out her jacket.  
  
"Bye Amy!" Both Elle and Sara said.  
  
Sara grabbed Elle's hand, and led her over to where Nick and Harrison were playing with the fire-truck. It was a complete fire-truck area, with a street and trees, and even a cat in a tree. Nick, who was the voice of the cat stuck in the tree, seemed to be having as much, or even more, fun than Harrison was.  
  
"You'll never save me, I'm Super Cat!" Nick said, taking the cat out of the tree and zooming it around in the air.   
  
"Daddy, cat's don't fly." Elle said.  
  
"Yeah Daddy, and they can't talk." Harrison said.  
  
"Oh, well, look Mommy.. we have two cat experts on our hands." Nick said, getting up, slightly embarrassed as Ms. DiMonda looked on and gave him a puzzled expression.  
  
"Well, lets take these two cat experts home." As they were about to leave, Ms. DiMonda came up behind them.  
  
"So Harrison, Elle, did you two have fun today?"  
  
"Yeah!" Both said, in unison.  
  
"Are you going to come back on Wednesday?"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
"Are you going to help teach your daddy that cat's can't fly and they can't talk?" Ms. DiMonda said, looking at Nick.  
  
"Very funny, Ms. DiMonda." Nick spoke up. "We'll see you Wednesday."  
  
As they walked towards the car, the twins ran ahead.   
  
"Nicky, looks like we might have to enroll you in preschool, too."  
  
"Very, very funny Sara. You and Ms. DiMonda should have an act, because you're both just hysterical!"  
  
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Woohoo, another chapter done! Please, read and review. (And hey, if you have any suggestions AT ALL let me know!) 


	9. Bye, Mommy!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
Hello to my lovely party people, you guys are the best people in the entire world! I love your reviews.   
  
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At around 6, Warrick arrived at Sara and Nick's.   
  
"I come bearing wine for the grown-ups and uh.. chocolate bars for the kids." He got a look from Sara "Hey - I couldn't figure out what equaled wine for kids, and then I remembered that kids love chocolate. Where are they anyway?"  
  
"Oh, they're in Elle's room. Sara bought them a new video and they've been glued to that TV for the past few hours. They just keep rewinding it, and watching the same thing over and over." Nick said, leading Warrick into the kitchen. Sara took the wine from him and opened it.   
  
"OK, who wants some?" Sara said, reaching for glasses.   
  
"Me" Warrick said, almost too quick.  
  
"I'll have some" Nick said. The doorbell rang. "Must be Greg and Carly." Just as Nick opened the door, Elle came running out of her bedroom, with Harrison right behind her.  
  
"Hey Greg, Carly. Come on in." Nick said, opening the door and moving out of the way to let them in.  
  
"Greg!" Harrison yelled.   
  
"Greg!" Elle said, equally enthusiastic.  
  
"Hey, did my two favorite kids enjoy their first day of preschool?"  
  
"Oh yeah, they had this really cool fire-truck." Harrison said, as Warrick walked up and pried Elle off of Greg's arm.  
  
"Hey Elle, how come when I walked in, you didn't run up and hug me?" He said, picking her up and holding her.  
  
"Oh Warrick, don't be such a poophead!" Elle said, adjusting herself so that'd she be more comfortable in Warrick's arms.   
  
"Hey Elle, what'd we say about using that word?" Sara said, poking her head out from the kitchen.  
  
"That I shouldn't say it" Elle said, rolling her eyes.  
  
"That's right, young lady." Nick said, coming out from the kitchen. "I come bearing foods and beverages." Nick set the food and drinks on the table, and everyone grabbed at them. Harrison, thinking no one was watching, headed straight for a glass of wine. Nick stood over him and pulled the glass from his hands.  
  
"Hey buddy, this isn't for you." Nick said, handing the glass to Carly. "This is for you." Nick said, picking up a plastic cup with a cover, which was filled with orange juice.  
  
"But Daddy, how come my drink isn't in a pretty glass like that?" He said, pointing to the glass Carly was holding, which he had been holding moments ago.  
  
"Because knowing you, you'd spill it all over yourself and the floor. And then who'd be cleaning up that mess?" Nick said, sitting on the couch and pulling Harrison into his lap.  
  
"Me" Sara said, emerging from the kitchen, holding the remaining glasses of wine and Elle's cup of apple juice. "Here, sweetie" Sara said, handing the cup to Elle.  
  
"Thanks Mommy." Elle said, plopping herself down between Greg and Nick, resting her arm on Greg's knee.  
  
"Now, who wants pizza and who wants Chinese for dinner?" Nick said, reaching for his wine glass.  
  
"I want pizza!" Elle, Harrison, and Greg said in unison.  
  
"I'll eat whatever everyone else wants" Carly said, not wanting to insult anybody's taste in food.  
  
"Yeah, same for me. Whatever the kids want." Warrick said, grabbing a tortilla chip.  
  
"OK, you guys want pizza?" Nick said, looking at Elle and Harrison.  
  
"Yeah!" Both said, loudly.  
  
"OK, pizza it is. Does anyone want anything on it?"  
  
"Pepperoni" Warrick said.  
  
"Pineapple" Sara said.  
  
"Sausage" Carly asked, more than said.  
  
"Greg? No requests?" Nick said, beginning to dial the number for the local pizzeria.  
  
"Yeah, I want all of the above - pepperoni, pineapple, sausage - but with extra cheese."  
  
"Uh.. alright. Hi, I'd like three pies…" Nick said, as he reached the pizzeria. "20 minutes? OK, great. Thanks."   
  
Just as Nick put his order in, Warrick's phone rang. "Brown."   
  
"Hi Warrick, I know you're at Nick and Sara's, but we need you to pack immediately. You and Sara need to come with me to North Carolina for the next three days. A very high-profile man in North Carolina has just requested for us to fly down and investigate the murder of his wife and newborn son." Grissom said.  
  
"Alright, Gris. Yeah, I got it. An hour? We only have an hour? That's just great. No, we'll be there. Bye." Warrick said, getting a look from everyone in the room.  
  
"Sara, what are you doing for the next three days?" Warrick looked at Sara.  
  
"You're kidding me." Sara said, already knowing what Warrick was going to tell her.  
  
"Nope, you, me, and Grissom. North Carolina. We have an hour to pack and be at the airport." Warrick said, getting up.   
  
"Warrick, you can't be serious." Sara said, getting up with him. She had never left her children by themselves for more than her usual night shift, and even then she usually called the babysitter at least twice to check up on them.   
  
"I'm very serious. You should start packing, I'll be back here in 20 minutes to pick you up, then we're meeting Grissom at the airport. He said to bring warm clothes, its chilly down in North Carolina this time of the year." Warrick said, saying a quick goodbye to everyone and heading towards his car parked out in the drive-way.   
  
Nick headed towards the hall closet, and pulled out a suitcase and a travel bag for Sara to pack her clothes and personal belongings in. He went back into the living room, and saw Sara standing in the same position she was when Warrick left. Greg and Carly were keeping the twins amused.   
  
"Sara, come on, we need to get you packed."   
  
"But Nick, you can't take care of the kids for three full days without me. You can barely take care of them for three hours."   
  
"I'll manage Sara, but you need to go. Grissom asked for you, and you need a break from those two. I know how much you love them, but this will be good for you. You didn't think you'd be able to not be with them when they went to preschool, and you did so good. They'll be perfectly fine. I am their father, after all."   
  
"But Nick, what if they need me? Its not like preschool where I'm just down the road and if they need anything I can get there in 5 minutes. This is across the country. On the other side of the universe to those two." Sara said, watching as Nick pulled out clothes for her and packed them.  
  
"Sara, I'm not arguing with you over this. Go grab your tooth-brush."   
  
"But Nick-"   
  
"No Sara. Now go get your toothbrush. I'll finish your packing, and you say goodbye to them." Nick said, not making eye-contact with her. He knew she was pissed at him for forcing her to leave his children, although she knew deep down that she was slowly having a breakdown, between the kids and work. Atleast now she'd only have work to focus on.  
  
"Fine, but, you know, we're not on good terms right now." Sara said, walking out to the living room. She saw Harrison, who seemed endlessly amazed with Greg's hair, and Elle brushing Carly's long blonde locks.   
  
"Hey you guys. Harrison, would you and Elle mind coming in the kitchen with me for a second?"  
  
"OK Mommy, come on Elle." Greg helped Harrison down from behind his back, and Elle handed the brush to Carly. They followed their mother into the kitchen.  
  
"Mommy, what's wrong?" Elle asked, seeing a tear come down her mother's face.  
  
"Nothing, baby, its just that.. I have to go on a little trip with Warrick and Uncle Grissom. I won't be back home until Friday morning. Is that OK?"  
  
Elle looked at her mother, and then at Harrison. Harrison was the first to speak up.  
  
"Is Daddy going to be here with us, or is Marie going to be with us?" Harrison asked, speaking of the babysitter that was with them as they slept. Sara was happy that she got to tuck them in at night, and then wake up with them in the morning. Marie was there while they slumbered.  
  
"Daddy will be here, and Marie will be here when you guys go to sleep. But during the day, yeah, Daddy will be here."  
  
"But you're going to come back right, Mommy?" Elle said, with a hint of nervousness in her voice.  
  
"Absolutely, of course. I'll be home Friday. I promise." Just as Sara finished, Warrick had walked through the door. "That was already 20 minutes?"  
  
"Well, actually 23 minutes. I figured the extra three minutes would serve you well." He said.  
  
"Yeah, they did. OK you guys, Mommy's going to go now." Sara said, hugging Harrison and giving him a kiss on the cheek as Nick loaded up Warrick's Tahoe with Sara's luggage. "I'll miss you, but I'll be home Friday." She kissed Elle on the cheek and gave her a hug. "I love you."  
  
"I love you, too." Harrison said, walking with his mom to the door.  
  
"I love you Mommy." Elle said, grabbing onto her mother's hands. She wasn't exactly sure of what it was going to be like without Sara there, but she knew that she was coming back and that's all that mattered to Elle.  
  
"Bye Nicky." Sara said, walking up to him and giving him a kiss on the lips and as best a hug she could while still holding on tightly to Elle's hands.  
  
"See you later Greg, Carly." Sara said, coming out of her embrace with Nick.   
  
"Bye Sara."  
  
"Hey Warrick" Nick said, as Sara kneeled down to give her twins one last hug each. "Make sure she's good. I, mean, you know, just make sure she's always around you. I don't want her roaming the North Carolina streets by herself."  
  
"Yeah, man, of course." Warrick said, giving his friend a handshake, hearing the anxiety in his voice. "Sar, you ready?"  
  
"Yep, lets move. The quicker I leave, the quicker I get to come back home." Sara said, walking out of the house. She turned around before she got in the Tahoe, and waved to her children. "Whew, that was quick." She said to Warrick.   
  
"Yeah, lets go!"  
  
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Ack, 6 pages! The most I've ever written. I really hope you enjoy this, and I'm going to have more soon. 


	10. Animal Jam

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
This will focus mainly on Nick with the kids, because I really don't want to write a whole case for Warrick and Sara.   
  
(A/N: "Animal Jam" is a show that is shown on TLC in the early morning. Kids love it!)  
  
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"Daddy, why does Mommy have to leave?" Harrison asked, after finishing his pizza. Nick insisted on Carly and Greg staying for the pizza, and they were all sitting around the dining room table. The couple could tell that Nick was antsy about being with his children for the next few days without Sara.  
  
"Because Uncle Grissom needs her, and sometimes other people need Mommy besides us." Nick said, standing up to start cleaning up. Carly then stood. "No, you sit" Nick said, grabbing her plate. "I have coffee and cake, so don't think you're leaving just yet."  
  
As Nick walked into the kitchen, Carly admired the doll Elle had clutched to her chest throughout dinner. Nick had asked her to put the doll back in her room while she ate, but she refused, and he was in no mood to argue with her.   
  
"Elle, that's a beautiful doll." Carly said, combing through the doll's hair with her fingers.  
  
"Thank you, I got it for me for my birthday from my mommy and daddy." Elle said, keeping her focus on the doll.  
  
"Well, you're a very lucky girl for getting such a beautiful doll." Carly said, noticing that the little girl didn't want to talk. She decided not to push her.   
  
Meanwhile, Harrison was telling Greg about the video he had gotten earlier in the day. Nick then reappeared from the kitchen with a tray of cookies and a cake Sara had made during the day to keep herself busy while the twins were at preschool. He walked back into the kitchen, and reemerged with coffee for the adults, and milk for his children.  
  
They made small talk during dessert, and before they knew it, it was 9:30PM.   
  
"Hey Nick, we're going to go home."  
  
"OK man, sorry that tonight was a little crazy." Nick said, beginning to clean up from dessert.  
  
"No problemo, Nick. And hey, if you need any help with those two," Greg said, pointing to the couches, each with a sleeping Stokes twin "don't hesitate to call."  
  
"Thanks Greg. Bye." Nick said, leading Greg and Carly to the door. "See you guys later."  
  
Nick closed the door, and walked back into his home. He sat on the chair that faced the two couches. He looked at his sleeping twins, and smiled. 'This should be a piece of cake,' he thought.   
  
He finished cleaning the dining room table, and changed his kids out of their day clothes into their pajamas.  
  
"Daddy?" Elle said, as Nick tucked her in.  
  
"Yeah, Elle?" He said, pulling the covers up to her chin.  
  
"I miss mommy" She said, pulling her doll close to her.  
  
"I know sweetie, but she'll be back before you know it." He said, kissing her on the forehead. As he left her room, he couldn't help but think how easy this was going to be. He couldn't figure out why Sara was so nervous. Nick got changed and hopped into bed. He was missing Sara too, he was so used to her being right next to him when he went to sleep. 'She'll be home soon,' he kept repeating in his head.  
  
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"Good morning, daddy!" Harrison said, as he jumped onto his father's bed.  
  
"Oh man, Harrison, what time is it?" Nick said, watching as his son hopped all over his bed.  
  
"Its time for Animal Jam. Come on, lets go and watch it."  
  
"You go and get all comfy on the couch, and I'll be right there." As Harrison was about to leave, Nick said "Hey Har, is Elle awake yet?"  
  
"Yeah, but she won't come out of her room. I think she misses mommy a lot." Harrison said, running towards the living room.  
  
Nick headed towards his daughter's room.  
  
"Hi sweetie, don't you want to come and watch Animal Jam with me and Harrison?" Elle just nodded 'no.'   
  
"Are you sure?" Nick said, she just nodded.  
  
"OK, well if you want to, we'll be in the living room watching Animal Jam." With that, Nick left her in her room, brushing her doll's hair.  
  
"Dad, come on. You're missing it!" Harrison said, sitting on the couch with the remote control in his hand.  
  
"OK, buddy." Nick sat down next to Harrison.  
  
An hour later, after two consecutive episodes of Animal Jam, Nick was completely shocked at how kids could be so mesmerized with something that was so entirely ridiculous.   
  
"Hey Har, go get Elle and tell her I'm making breakfast."   
  
Harrison just simply screamed "ELLE!"  
  
"Hey, hey. I could've done that." Nick said, still recovering from Animal Jam.  
  
Elle came out of her bedroom, still holding on to her doll. Nick remembered her and Sara changing her outfit. He figured the doll reminded Elle of Sara.  
  
"Hey Elle, want some breakfast?" Nick said, trying to make his daughter not feel so bad.  
  
"Yeah, what are we having?" Elle said. Nick was happy that she finally decided that talking was a better approach at communication than nodding.  
  
"Anything you want." When Harrison heard that, he remembered their favorite breakfast food.  
  
"Hey Dad, can we have chocolate chocolate chip pancakes?" At the sound of chocolate chocolate chip pancakes, Elle perked up.   
  
"Sure, we can have pancakes. Can you go turn on something other than Animal Jam?" Harrison went, and turned on Nickelodeon. 'The Rugrats' Nick thought 'I should've figured he wouldn't have turned on the news.'  
  
As Harrison and Elle sat in the living room, the phone rang.  
  
"Hello? Hey, Sara." At the mention of their mother's name, the twins ran into the kitchen.  
  
"Mommy!! Daddy, can we talk to mommy?" Elle asked, leaving behind the doll that had become like a third arm.  
  
"Sure. Sara, Elle wants to talk to you. OK, hold on."  
  
"Hi Mommy, no I'm fine. I miss you, too. No, OK. I love you too, Mommy. Here's Harrison." Elle said, handing the phone to Harrison.  
  
"Hey Mommy. I'm really great, Daddy watched Animal Jam with me. Yeah, it was so cool. Yeah, with the monkeys. OK, I love you. Bye Mommy." Harrison said, handing the phone back to his father and running back into the living room with Elle to watch TV.  
  
"Hey Sar, how's the case going? No, its been fine. Well Sara, its only been 12 hours. If anything goes wrong, Greg offered to help. Sara, I'm just kidding. I wouldn't leave them with Greg. Well, not for long periods of time. Kidding, again, kidding. OK, yeah, go back to work. I love you. OK, bye." Nick said, placing a pancake in two plates for Elle and Harrison. He made a bagel for himself. "OK, you guys, come on. Time for breakfast."  
  
"Daddy, what are we doing today?" Harrison said, his mouth full of chocolate chocolate chip pancakes.   
  
"Well, I don't have any work so we can do whatever you want."  
  
"Can we go to the park? Please, Daddy, I love the park." Elle pleaded, finishing her pancake. Nick just nodded, his mouth too busy with his bagel to talk.   
  
'Today is going to be a very long day.' Nick thought. 


	11. The Park

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
(A/N: I know they work the night shift, but I decided that they work whenever I want them to work. Oh, the power of being the author!)  
  
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After getting the twins cleaned up and dressed, Nick was debating over what to do with them. He couldn't keep them hostage in this house for the next three days, they'd all go insane. And with the brief two and a half hours Nick would have to himself tomorrow, he considered having Greg come over to help and give him some relief.  
  
"Daddy, where are we going?" Harrison asked, watching his father grab his dark blue and Elle's light pink sweatshirt jackets out of the hall closet.  
  
"Oh I don't know, maybe we'll head my the lab and let you see Greg, or we could go to the park." Nick said, handing Harrison his jacket. The twins thought about what they would rather do and see. It was a tough decision for them, choosing between their two favorite things - Greg and the park.   
  
"Can we go to see Greg and then go to the park?"   
  
Nick handed Elle her jacket. "I'm afraid we can only do one thing today, but tomorrow is a new day so whatever we can't do today we can do tomorrow." Harrison looked passed his sister and out the window, making Elle do the same. He noticed how nice and sunny it was out, and made the decision.  
  
"I want to go to the park, but tomorrow we can see Greg, right?" Harrison said.  
  
"Hey, wait a second. Aren't we going to ask Elle what she wants to do?" Harrison turned around, and looked at his sister with pleading eyes. He hoped that she wanted to do the same as she did. He remembered when he wanted macaroni and cheese for dinner, and she wanted a cheeseburger - they ended up with soup. "Elle, do you want to go to the park today?" Nick said, helping Harrison zipper his jacket.  
  
"OK, but I want to see Greg tomorrow, too." She said, fumbling with her own jacket zipper. Nick went over to help her, but she zippered it up before he could lend a hand. "I got it." She said, triumphantly.   
  
"OK, so today we'll go to the park and then tomorrow, after preschool, we'll go and see how Greg's doing." Nick said, turning off the television and grabbing his own jacket and keys. "Alright, are we ready to go?"  
  
"Yeah!" Harrison said, followed by Elle. Nick walked out and the twins ran to the Tahoe parked in their driveway. Nick opened the door for them, and they hopped in the backseat. Once he knew they were buckled in, he buckled himself and pulled out of the driveway and headed towards the park. As soon as Nick parked in front of the bright yellow swing set, he heard two seatbelts unclick and felt feet shuffling behind him. When he turned around, he saw Harrison opening the door and hoping out, followed by Elle.  
  
Before Nick even got out of the car, Harrison and Elle had ran towards their favorite toy in the whole park - the tire swing. He remembered last time he pushed them on the tire swing, he went home with a sore back. They spent the next two hours running around the park and playing on the few toys spread out across the grassy area. They had all taken a seat underneath a shady tree, and were relaxing and enjoying the breeze that wasn't customary in Las Vegas.   
  
"Daddy?" Elle said, looking up at her father. She had positioned herself comfortably underneath Nick's arm and was resting her head on his chest.  
  
"Hmm?" Nick said, looking down at her. He removed his arm from her side to let her sit up.  
  
"I need to go to the bathroom." Elle said, standing up. Usually Sara would take her to the women's room, but now Sara wasn't there and there was no Sara there to take Elle. Nick had remembered Sara explaining to him about not letting their young children go into public restrooms by themselves. He recalled her saying "Nicky, you've seen the news. Public restrooms are where perverted child molesters seek out their victims. Our children will not be victims of those perverts!" Nick didn't know what to do, and the drive home was about 20 minutes. He knew she wouldn't last.  
  
"Do you really need to go Elle? Or can you wait, and we'll go home right now?" Nick said, silently praying that she would sit back down and forget needing to use the bathroom.  
  
"Daddy, I need to go now!!" Elle said, causing Harrison to roll his eyes at how dramatic she was. He had taken the exact same position Elle had, but on the opposite side of their father. Nick stood up, and looked around for a restroom. Then he saw a restroom located close to their car.   
  
"OK Elle, come on." Nick said, grabbing Elle's hand. Harrison got up, and walked behind them towards the restroom. He figured he could take her into the men's restroom. 'What men would be here? Most would be at home with their families eating dinner, or at work.' Nick thought.   
  
"Harrison, come on." Nick said, holding the door open as Elle stepped inside the men's bathroom. He could hear Elle from inside asking "Daddy, are these long toilets?" Nick thought it was best to just ignore the question. "Elle, wait a second." He yelled inside the restroom.  
  
"Harrison, right now." Harrison just stood there, staring at Nick. "I'm not joking here, Harrison. Right now, mister." Harrison didn't move a muscle. Then Nick remembered. "Hey Har, if you don't get in this bathroom right now, we're not seeing Greg tomorrow after preschool." That made Harrison run into the restroom.  
  
"OK Elle, so do your stuff and me and Harrison will wait right here." Nick said, pointing towards the stall. Elle just stood there, watching Nick. "Come on Elle, we need to get home and get ready for school tomorrow." Nick said, pleading with his daughter.   
  
"Daddy, when I go with Mommy, she covers the seat so that my tooshie doesn't get dirty." Elle said.   
  
"She covers it? With what? Toilet paper?" Nick asked, Elle nodded in response. "OK, I can do that. Just wait a second." Nick said, stepping into the stall. A few moments later, Nick emerged. "OK Elle, its all ready."  
  
Elle walked into the stall and locked the door behind her. Nick had covered every square inch of the seat, with at least a dozen sheets of toilet paper. After she was done, she came out of the stall. Nick had started running the water for her to wash her hands and Harrison held out paper towels for her to dry her hands with. Elle laughed at the sight.  
  
"Daddy, you put a lot of toilet paper on the seat. Mommy doesn't cover it that much." Elle said, lathering her hands with the soap.  
  
"Well, I really didn't want your tooshie to get dirty." Nick said, helping her with the nozzles for the water. "All done?" Nick asked. When she nodded, he turned the water off and Harrison handed her the paper towels.  
  
"Thanks Harrison" Elle said, flashing him a grin that was uniquely Elle's.  
  
"OK, so we all ready to go home?" Nick asked, walking out of the bathroom and headed to their Tahoe. Both nodded, and Nick was thankful that they didn't want to play on any more of the toys. He unlocked the doors, and Harrison and Elle ran up and let themselves into the car. Nick closed the door, and got in himself. He pulled out of his parking spot once they were all buckled in.  
  
"So, what do you guys want for dinner?" Nick said, looking at his twins in the backseat through the rearview mirror.  
  
"McDonalds!" Elle yelled, making Harrison mimic her.  
  
"OK, McDonalds it is." Nick said. They drove the way to McDonalds in silence. Nick thought about how thankful he was that the restroom had been empty when he covered the seat for Elle. With Harrison, he did his business without ever touching the seat. Except for the time he lost his balance and tipped forward. Thankfully, he steadied himself with his hands and that was the only part of his body that touched the seat. Nick cringed at the idea of his son's hands touching something that someone else's derriere had occupied.   
  
They pulled up at McDonalds, placed their orders - two cheeseburger Happy Meals for Elle and Harrison, and a Big Mac with a large soda and fries for Nick - and made their way home. Unfortunately for Nick, the toy that had come in the Happy Meal were toys that made a whistling sound. He had, unwisely, handed the toys to the twins before they pulled away and the whole ride home they made the toy whistle, using all of their breath.  
  
After they had returned home and eaten, Elle and Harrison had passed out on the couch. He had made them ice-cream sundaes, which was a rarity in the Stokes' household. Sara didn't mind them eating it eventually, but she didn't want to make a routine of it. After the ice-cream, they sat down to watch the movie Sara had bought them, and eventually fell asleep.  
  
Nick eventually felt like passing out on the couch too. He hated to admit it to himself, but he was tired. They had worn him out all day. 'They're non-stop' Nick thought, as he did the dishes from the ice-cream. 'I don't know how they had all that energy all day.' When he finished the dishes, he turned the video off and carried Harrison and Elle into their bedrooms. 'Thank God they changed before falling asleep' Nick thought as he placed Elle in her bed. The night before he had a small fight with a sleeping Harrison, who kept kicking as Nick tried to take his day pants off and put on his pajama pants.   
  
Nick made his way into his own room, picking up toys that had strayed away from the toy chest in the hall that connected the twins' rooms. As he changed his own clothes to a pair of pajama shorts and a t-shirt, the phone rang. Nick picked it up quickly, knowing that if one of his twin's woke up, he was too tired himself to tend to them.  
  
"Hello?" Nick said, slightly groggy.  
  
"Nicky? Hey, its Sara." His wife responded. Nick hadn't realized how much he'd missed her until he heard her voice.  
  
"Hi honey, how's it going?" Nick said, loving to hear Sara's voice.  
  
"Ugh, well, its going. You have to see this couple lived - their bathroom is, seriously, the size of our entire home. Its absolutely amazing. We're leaning towards the father killing his son, resulting in his wife killing herself." Sara said. She heard Nick yawn, and figured he'd had a long day with the twins. "How are the kids?"  
  
"They're perfect, Sara. Just the way you left them." Nick asked, smiling to himself as he thought about how side-tracked Sara must've been all day thinking about her twins.  
  
"What'd you guys do today?" Sara asked, taking a bite of the salad Warrick had gotten her once they had a break. Nick could hear her chew on something that sounded like a cucumber.  
  
"Oh, we watched Animal Jam, and went to the park and ate McDonalds."   
  
"Ah yes, Harrison told me this morning that you watched Animal Jam. Knowing you, my dear husband, you must've been enthralled." Sara said, laughing.  
  
Nick remembered her calling this morning, and barely having any time to talk to her with the twins wanting breakfast. "It was amazing. Quality television, let me tell you." Nick said, turning on the television set and putting it on Mute.  
  
"So you went to the park?" Sara asked, still munching away on her salad. She hadn't eaten anything since the night before, on the place. It was two cookies that tasted like she ate them a day too late.  
  
"Yep." Nick said, flipping through the channels.  
  
"And how was that?" Sara said, finally finishing her dinner.  
  
"It was great. I don't think I ever realized how energetic these two are." Nick said, finally leaving the channel on some infomercial about itch cream.  
  
"Yeah, sometimes I wonder how they function on such little sleep." Sara said, laying down on her hotel bed. Warrick popped his head in from his adjoining room and pointed to his watch. They had to get back to the crime scene so that tomorrow they could process all the stuff. Friday was the day that they were going to prove whodunit, or at least they hoped, and they would head home later in the day if all went well.  
  
"Nicky, I gotta go. Warrick's here, and we've got more stuff to do at the crime scene. The kids are asleep?" Sara asked, sliding her shoes on.  
  
"Yeah, they fell asleep about an hour ago."  
  
"OK, and you remembered they have preschool tomorrow?"   
  
"Yep, 10 to 12:30."   
  
"Yeah, and I left clothes on our dresser for them to wear. If they look a little wrinkled, you could just iron it out quickly. And make sure you're not late to pick them up. Leave the house 10 minutes early to get them." Nick eyed the pile of clothes on the dresser. "Nick, are you listening?" Sara asked, watching as Warrick walked back into her room, pointing at his watch again.  
  
"Yeah, Sar. I got it. They'll be fine. You're coming home Friday right?" Nick said, wanting to fall asleep.  
  
"I'm really hoping so, Nick. I'll call you tomorrow, OK? I love you." Sara said, grabbing her jacket.  
  
"I'll talk to you tomorrow Sara. Say hi to Warrick and Grissom for me. I love you, too. Bye."   
  
"Bye, sweetie." And with that, they both hung up their phones.  
  
Five minutes later, Nick was asleep. Twenty minutes later, Elle was sleeping at his side. And a little over an hour later, Harrison was sleeping next to Nick's head.   
  
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	12. Peanut Butter Crackers

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
RK9: You figured me out! Yes, Sara and Nick will have another baby.   
  
Everyone who reviews seems to love the twins, which is great for me because I essentially made them up. So, yay for me!   
  
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Nick had woken up later than he was supposed to. He simply forgot that the twins had preschool at 10AM. He woke up at 9:15, and had the kids fed and dressed by 9:45. He was proud of himself. Nick didn't have enough time to iron the clothes like Sara had suggested, or rather commanded, but she figured she'd be happy as long as they got to school. He got himself dressed, and they got their at exactly 9:59AM.  
  
When he dropped them off, Ms. DiMonda had told Nick that if Sara was coming to pick the twins up, that she should come no earlier than 12:20PM. Nick didn't think she needed to know Sara was gone, so he just told her he would be there to pick her up. Nick could see why Sara had her reservations about this teacher. While they were at school, Nick had cleaned up the house from breakfast and from the night before. At 12:20, just as Nick was walking out of the house to pick the twins up, the phone rang. He knew he couldn't answer it, but figured there was no harm in looking at the Caller ID.  
  
He went over to the phone, and the Caller ID said "Cell Phone." Nick read the number, and recognized it as Sara's. He wondered why she would be calling at this time, her being the one telling Nick not to be late to pick the kids up. He picked up his cell phone, and went out to the Tahoe. As he pulled out of the drive-way, he dialed Sara's phone.  
  
"Hey, Sara, did you call the house?" Nick said, fumbling with his seatbelt and trying to hold the phone to his ear.  
  
"Yeah, I needed to talk to you." Sara said. The reception was fuzzy, with both of them being on their cell phones.  
  
"What's wrong?" Nick said, knowing that the tone of Sara's voice was never used when she had good news.  
  
"I won't be home on Friday. It'll probably be more like Saturday night, or Sunday morning." Sara said, pulling the receiver away from her ear, expecting Nick to yell and scream at the news. After not hearing a reaction, Sara got worried. "Nick? Hello?"   
  
Nick had to think before answering. He didn't want to scare Sara by yelling. "That's alright, Sar. Why the delay?" Nick said, stopping at a traffic light and switching the phone to the other ear.  
  
"We figured out the husband did kill his son, used the string on the vertical blinds in his son's room. He doesn't believe we've done all of our work properly and wants us to double-check all of our evidence. Everything, again. Warrick and I have to go back to the crime-scene tonight, and then tomorrow we'll process whatever else we find. Hopefully, Saturday we'll be able to close the case." Sara said, opening the door to her hotel room. She had to change her clothes after spilling coffee all over herself during her quick breakfast.  
  
"Its really OK, Sara. We've been doing fine without you. We do miss you, though. Any ideas of what I can make them for dinner?" Nick said, pulling up to the preschool.   
  
"Um, there should be some sort of pasta in the cabinet, just make that. And slice up some Italian bread. And if you want, there should be some jar of sauce right next to the pasta. You don't have to make that if you don't want to, but Harrison will probably carry on if there's no sauce." Sara said, opening her suitcase and trying to find something to match her khaki pants.  
  
"OK, I'll ask him before I cook." Nick said, walking towards the classroom. He looked in the window, and the teacher saw him. She waved, obviously not wanting Nick to come in just yet, and went back to helping a child. "Sara, I hate their preschool teacher."   
  
"See? I told you! She's a psycho. Why? Are you at the school right now?" Sara asked, finally settling on a blue short-sleeved blouse.  
  
"Yep, I'm right outside the door, and she just looked and waved. I think I'm here too early." Nick looked at his watch. "Its 12:28, are those 2 minutes really all that important to them?" Nick said, with his back to the door. He turned around when he heard someone clear their throat.  
  
"Excuse me, Mr. Stokes, but your children are ready to go home." Ms. DiMonda said, standing there, looking embarrassed. Nick figured she wasn't embarrassed for herself, but for him.  
  
"OK, thanks. Listen Sar, I have to go get the kids. I'll call you later. Bye." And with that, Nick flipped his cell phone, ending his conversation with his wife. "Hi Ms. DiMonda, how were they today?"  
  
"Oh, they were perfect little angels, just as they were on Tuesday. You and your wife have done a wonderful job, considering it has to be difficult for a young couple to take on twins as their first born." Nick tried to figure out if she was using something nice to secretly say something spiteful about the way he and Sara had raised their children. After not thinking of anything, he smiled politely and walked inside the classroom as Elle and Harrison cleaned up in the art center. Nick walked over to the cubby area, and picked up their jackets. Once he got their belongings, he walked over to them.  
  
"Hey guys, how was school today?" Nick said, handing Harrison his jacket and handing Elle hers.  
  
"It was so much fun today Daddy. Amy and I played with the Barbies she brought in from home, and she even has some I don't have. One of them had a mermaid tail and all different color hair." Elle said, putting her jacket on.  
  
"Who cares about Barbies, Elle?" Harrison said, getting a look from Nick but continued buttoning up his jacket. Nick opted to make them wear their button up jackets instead of the ones with zippers, because they had a hard time managing zippers and Nick's back was starting to hurt him from bending over so much. "Dad, they had this really cool airplane and it made the noises of an airplane, and it had a thing that spun in the front."  
  
"A propeller?" Nick questioned.  
  
"Yeah, a propeller and it was so awesome." Harrison said, grabbing onto Nick's hand.   
  
"Who cares about a properlor, Harrison?" Elle said, sticking her tongue out to him. When Harrison started running after her, she ran behind Nick's back.   
  
"Hey, you two, cut it out. It's called a propeller, sweetie." He said, grabbing onto Elle's hand and regrapping Harrison's.   
  
"Thank you, Ms. DiMonda. We'll see you on Tuesday." Nick said, exiting the classroom with the twins in toe.  
  
"No problem, Mr. Stokes. They really are very well behaved, just when they're not together." She said. As Nick started walking down the hall-way, Ms. DiMonda shouted, "And yes, Mr. Stokes, those two minutes really are important to your children's development. See you Tuesday!" And with that, Ms. DiMonda was gone.  
  
Nick looked down as his twins walked down the hall. "Do you guys really like her?"  
  
"She's alright, Daddy." Elle said, playing with the button on her coat pocket.  
  
"Yeah, she gives us good snacks. Today we had those crackers with the peanut butter in the middle. Mmm, they're my favorite." Harrison answered, preoccupied with his father's watch.  
  
And with that, they were on their way to see Greg.   
  
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Woohoo, another chapter done! Amazing 12 chapters done, I know, they haven't been so amazing that 12 should sound like a lot, but I only was going to write the one chapter. I'm happy I've continued. I don't know what I'm going to do with the next chapter, either have the visit to Greg or have Sara come home. What do you guys want? 


	13. Greg and Sara

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
Oh, I love how everyone hates Ms. DiMonda. I hate her too, she's basically an incarnation of my 2nd grade teacher who I despised beyond belief. Ugh, I hated her so much. I bit my nails during school, and I remember one time she flipped out, and threw a book at me. Needless to say, she was fired the next month. Mwahaha, my power lies far beyond that of the fanfiction.   
  
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"Daddy, how come Greg works here and Uncle Grissom works there?" Harrison said, sitting on a stool in the lab and pointing towards where he saw Grissom's office, which was unoccupied at the time. Nick had brought them there after they had eaten a quick lunch, and Elle had changed from her school shoes to a comfortable pair of jelly flip flops.  
  
"Because Greg's our friendly lab technician" Nick said, patting Greg on the back "And Uncle Grissom…." Nick paused for a moment, trying to find the best word "isn't."  
  
"Nice work, Daddyo, but I work in here because Grissom can't focus the microscope on anything without MY help" Greg said, obviously gloating, but enjoying the company he had. Usually he had people who weren't in the mood to talk, or were just annoyed with him.   
  
"Greg?" Elle said. "What happens if I press this red button?"  
  
"Well, if you press the red button, the sprinklers in the lab go off. You only press it in case of an emergency where'd you need to use the sprinklers, like a fire." Greg said, picking up Elle from her current position next to the big, red button and seating her on a stool next to Harrison. For some reason, he just didn't trust her. Kids and buttons never seemed to mix well.  
  
"Oooooh" Elle said, clearly enchanted with the red button.   
  
"So Daddyo" Greg said, getting a look from Nick that he knew meant death. Greg had called him 'Daddyo' since the day the twins were born. Sara tried to tell Nick that it was a term of endearment, that Greg saw him as a father figure not only to the twins but also to him, but Nick didn't buy any of it. He knew Greg was taunting him about giving up his so-called 'playboy' lifestyle, which never really existed, but Greg liked to think it did. "When is Sara coming home?"   
  
"Eh, when she called this morning, she said most likely Saturday or Sunday. Some really sick case they had, father used the cord of vertical blinds to kill his son." Nick said, looking over at Harrison. He could never imagine killing his own son, his own flesh and blood, something him and Sara worked so hard to create. He rubbed Harrison's hair, causing him to squirm in his seat.   
  
"Hey Greggo, we have to head home. Its getting late, I have to cook dinner, feed them, and get them all cleaned up and off to bed before 8:30." Nick said, helping Elle off the stool.  
  
"OK, Mr. Mom. Hey guys" Greg said, bending down to Elle's and Harrison's height "I'm really glad you two came today, usually its so boring here with all the dead bodies and stuff."   
  
"OK Greg, that's enough. Say goodbye, you two." Nick said, as Elle and Harrison hugged Greg and said goodbye.  
  
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Thursday night came and went. As did Friday, day and night. Nick took the kids to the park again, this time for lunch. But when it started to rain, they had to run back to the car and head home. Nick was convinced Harrison had caught a cold, because he refused to put his jacket on and sneezed a dozen times during the ride home. Saturday was spent in the house, as the rain continued.   
  
That night, Nick had ordered out for pizzas. He wasn't in the mood to cook again, and couldn't barbeque anything because of the rain. After they had watched "The Lion King", the twins went to sleep. Nick got into bed, coming to the realization that Sara wouldn't be home until sometime tomorrow. He had sought out hope all day that she would walk through that door, and help him with their children. Nick was tired. Very tired in fact, that he fell asleep along with his children as they watched "The Lion King."  
  
At around 1AM, Nick heard someone turning the front doorknob. He was so tired before he went to bed, that he couldn't remember if he had locked the door or not. He pulled on a t-shirt, closed the doors to Elle and Harrison's room, and walked towards the living room. 'Good job, Nicky, leave no lights on.' Usually they left the hallway light on, incase one of the kids had to use the bathroom. Sara didn't want them walking around in the dark, they could bang into something and get hurt.   
  
As Nick rounded the corner into the living-room, he saw a tall figure standing, dripping wet. He inched his way closer. Whatever he had to do, this person wasn't getting near his children, no matter what it took.  
  
"Nicky?" The person asked. Nick realized that this person sounded very much like Sara. He flipped on the lamp that was sitting on the end-table. As he looked up, he was his wife, soaked to the bone, standing in their living room. He ran over to her, and enveloped her in his arms. "Oh Nicky, its so good to be home. I missed you so much." She said, kissing his shoulder with light, sweet kisses.  
  
"Sara, oh, Sara, we've missed you so much." He said, in between kissing her wet hair.   
  
At that moment, he didn't care about how wet she was getting the rug or the fact that the front door was wide open. All that mattered was Sara, and she was right here with him.   
  
"How are the kids?" Sara asked, pulling away from Nick.  
  
"They're absolutely amazing. They've missed you so much, Sara. I'm a good father, but I'm a lousy mother." Nick said, making her laugh.  
  
"You would not believe how much we've worked today to be able to come home. Warrick was even starting to laugh at Grissom's jokes, the few he made." Sara said, peeling off wet clothes as she walked towards the bedrooms.  
  
"Sara" Nick said, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck as they made their way towards their bedroom, "I've missed you so much, you have no idea."   
  
"Nicky" she said, turning around in his arms as they went into their bedroom, "I think I have some idea." She said, kissing him. "Let me go get changed." She grabbed dry pajamas out of her drawer and headed towards the bathroom. She loved the feel of her home, how nice and cozy it was. Not like some hotel room. She always felt they were so impersonal, never special in its own way. Each the exact same.   
  
As she walked towards Elle's room, she picked up dolls and toys that were left by her children. Although sometimes she felt like a maid in her own home, she loved it and wouldn't change it for anything.  
  
Entering Elle's room made Sara feel a sensation throughout her body. A maternal sensation, the type she felt when she first held her daughter or when she watched her take her first steps. It was the type of sensation Sara loved and cherished with her entire spirit.   
  
As Sara brushed a few strays strands of curly locks away from Elle's nose, she stirred.   
  
"Mommy?" Elle said, still slightly asleep. "You're home?"  
  
"Yeah, baby, I'm home. Go back to sleep" Sara said, kissing her forehead. "I'll still be here when you wake up tomorrow."  
  
"OK, Mommy." Elle said. It didn't take her long to fall back asleep.  
  
As Sara entered Harrison's room, she watched him as he slept. Harrison had the face of an angel, or at least in Sara's mind he did. Once night, after Harrison had a bad dream and Sara climbed in bed with him, she watched him sleep the entire night. There was something about his face that Sara was captivated by. She didn't want to wake him up, so she just pulled the blanket over his leg which seemed to escape during his slumber, and kissed him lightly on the forehead.  
  
"I'm home, baby." Sara said. "Mommy's home."  
  
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Aw, yes, it was a very sweet chapter. Its so late, I'm so sleepy. I'll write more soon, I'm addicted to this. Woohoo, read and review! 


	14. Cereal and Surprises

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
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Nick woke up without his wife beside him. The past few days he had known that she wouldn't be there, and wasn't too disappointed. But when he woke up, he was startled to not see her. 'I'm pretty sure she came home last night' Nick thought to himself. When he lifted his head up off the pillow and spied her suitcase and travel bag next to the rocking chair that Sara used to sit it and rock their children to sleep in, he knew that she was definitely home.   
  
"Sara?" Nick called out, figuring she might've gotten up early to take a shower, or to eat something. He got out of bed, pulling a t-shirt on, and walked past the bathroom. He looked in and saw the light was off. No Sara. He went into the living room. No Sara. The kitchen. No Sara. He then thought that Sara might have gone to sit with one of the twins. He made his way into Elle's room. No Sara, but there was Elle, half of her body hanging off the bed as she was playing with her dolls on the floor.   
  
"Good morning Elle" Nick said, walking into the room. He shocked her, causing the rest of her body to fall out of the bed, and for her to hit her head on the hardwood floors. "Oh sweetie." Nick said, running to her side as she began to cry. He scooped her in his arms. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He pulled her face away from his shoulder. "Are you OK baby?" He said, looking at her face. She just nodded and sniffled, and snuggled back into his warm embrace. "Lets go find mommy." Elle perked up, remembering her mother returning last night.  
  
"Mommy!!" Elle said, jumping out of Nick's arms and running towards Harrison's room, where she saw her mother sitting on the floor playing with him. "Mommy, you're home!" She said, grabbing Sara from behind and wrapping her arms tightly around Sara's neck.   
  
"Hey Elle, yeah, I got home last night. Really late. Daddy was even asleep." Sara said, pulling Elle around to face her.  
  
"Wow, that was late." Elle said, holding onto her mother's hand, knowing how late Nick usually stayed up.  
  
"Oh Elle, what happened to your head? There's a red bump." Sara soothingly rubbed the bruise on her daughter's tiny forehead, and kissed it lightly.  
  
"Daddy walked into my room, and he scared me and I fell out of my bed and hit my head on the floor." Elle said, grabbing Harrison's Elmo doll off the floor, and nestling her face into Elmo's.   
  
"Nick? Why did you scare her?" Sara said, looking at her husband from the floor as he leaned in the doorway. He felt as though he was being yelled at by his mother, but just laughed.  
  
"I didn't mean to, I was going in to say good morning." Nick said.   
  
"Mom, do you have work today?" Harrison asked, poking his head out from behind the toy chest where he had gone on search of his runaway bouncy ball.  
  
"Nope, Uncle Grissom gave me today and tomorrow off because he felt so bad making me leave you guys." Sara said, looking up at Nick, who didn't know of the news.  
  
"He gave you the next two days off? Wow." Nick said. Sara was a workaholic before she had gotten pregnant, and after the delivery, she could never imagine working as much as she did while she had two children at home.   
  
"Yep, so we can do anything you guys want." Sara said. All of a sudden, she began feeling sharp pains in her stomach. "I'll be right back. I just have to go to the bathroom." Sara said, getting up and placing Elle on the floor.  
  
Nick noticed the rapid change in Sara's mood as she headed quickly towards the bathroom. He just brushed it off and sat on the floor, and started playing with his children. After about 15 minutes and no return of Sara, he started to worry.   
  
"Hey you two, I'm going to go check and see if mommy's OK." He said, resting the toy cars the three of them were playing with on the floor.   
  
As he made his way to the bathroom, he had heard Sara in the bathroom. To Nick, he couldn't quite make out what he had heard. He knocked on the door, not wanting to disturb Sara. "Sar, honey, are you OK?" He heard no response, just the door unlock. He walked inside and saw his wife sitting on the floor, next to the toilet bowl. "Oh, sweetie" he said, wetting a washcloth with cold water and placing it on the back of her neck and her forehead.  
  
"No Nick, I just threw up food I ate last night. I feel like complete shit." She said, moving the washcloth from her forehead to the back of her neck.  
  
"Did you eat something bad?" Nick said, not really knowing why his wife was so sick, so sudden.  
  
"No, just a bag of potato chips and a bottle of water. I felt fine until just a little while ago." She said, handing the washcloth to Nick so he could re-wet it.  
  
"Maybe you have some sort of virus." Nick said, handing the newly soaked washcloth back to Sara.  
  
"Probably. Can you give the kids breakfast? Cereal or something. I'm going to take a shower." She said, getting up.  
  
"Yeah, sure." He said, helping her up. Before he left the bathroom, he gave her a kiss on the forehead.  
  
After a 30-minute shower, Sara re-emerged from the shower looking refreshed and re-reenergized.  
  
"Hey Sara, you feeling better?" Nick said, sitting down, eating cereal with the twins.  
  
"Yeah Mommy, are you OK?" Harrison asked, looking up as his mother sat down in the seat next to him.  
  
"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I feel much better. Its probably just some 24-hour bug." Nick looked at her. "Really, I'm feeling a lot better. So, Har, what is this your eating?" Sara said, peeking over the side of her son's cereal bowl.  
  
"Its Cocoa Crispies. When you add the milk, it makes all these popping noises. You should've heard Elle's." Harrison said, pointing to Elle's cereal bowl. For Christmas, Catherine had bought Harrison Superman silverware - bowl, cup, fork, spoon, knife - and the identical for Elle, except instead of Superman she had Cinderella.   
  
"Yeah, mine made a lot of popping noises. But I don't like the cocoa ones, I have the fruity ones." Elle said, indicating the morsels of sugar drowning in milk in her bowl.  
  
"Yummy" Sara said. She directed her attention to Nick, "I see you buy the same foods I buy when I go food shopping" Sara said.   
  
"Sara, every week they eat Cheerios. They needed a little sugar, that's what cereal is all about." Nick said, as he chomped down on his own Cocoa Crispies.  
  
"Yeah, OK, but if they hate me when the Cocoa Crispies.." Sara began, getting up and going to grab a coffee cup out of the cabinet.   
  
"And the fruity ones, Mommy" Elle said, as she heaved more of her cereal into her mouth.  
  
"And the fruity ones are gone, I'm blaming you entirely." Sara said, filling her cup up with the hot liquid.  
  
"I already take the blame." Nick said, looking over his shoulder at her, and giving him the wink that always reminded her of how much she loved him.  
  
"Uh, Nicky, keep an eye on the kids." She said, throwing her coffee cup and dashing towards the bathroom. Nick heard her be sick again, and got up to help her. "Hey you two, eat your breakfast. I'll be right back." He said, leaving his children who were tasting each other's cereal.  
  
"Sara, honey, still not feeling good?" Nick said, sitting across from her on the cold bathroom tile.  
  
"Nick, I don't feel sick sick. Its almost how I felt when I was.." Sara stopped, not wanting to scare Nick.  
  
"When you were what, Sar?" Nick said, moving closer to her.  
  
"When I was pregnant with the twins." Sara said, looking Nick in the eye to see his reaction. "I'm not saying I'm.. you know, pregnant or anything, but its just the same feeling. Its an easily distinguishable feeling, I mean, its definitely a feeling you only get when your pregnant." She rambled on, trying to get some sort of a response from Nick.  
  
"Sara, are you?" Nick asked, knowing that she already knew the answer. She only blathered when she was trying to hide something.  
  
"Am I what?" Sara asked, trying to avoid the question at all costs.  
  
"Sara, don't play dumb with me." He looked her in the eye. "Are you pregnant?"   
  
Sara didn't want to answer too quickly, but she knew she had to tell him. They never discussed having more kids, the ones they already had were a handful for them. Sara didn't know if she or Nick could handle having another little one running around the house.  
  
"Yes, I'm pregnant." Sara answered. Nick looked up at her, down to the floor, back towards her face. Sara needed something, anything, some sort of a response. Even if it be anger, she needed something. "Nick? Nicky, honey?"  
  
"You're.. pregnant?" Nick asked, needing for her to confirm it once more for him.  
  
"Yes, Nick. Pregnant. With child. Expectant. Expecting." Sara said, looking from the floor to the ceiling. "Pregnant." She said once more, almost validating it for herself.  
  
Nick looked up at her, and gave her the grin he had given her the last time they found out Sara was expecting. It was the biggest and the best smile Sara had ever seen bless a face. "That's amazing, Sara." He said, moving as close as he could get and hugging her tightly, kissing her hair. "Its wonderful, baby. I can't imagine anything more perfect."   
  
They just sat there, until they heard two tiny knocks at the door and saw Elle's head poke in. "Are you OK in here?" she asked, worried why her parents were in the bathroom for so long, and together.  
  
"Everything's absolutely perfect, sweetheart" Nick said, holding out his arms to her. "Want to know what me and Mommy were talking about in here this whole time?"  
  
Elle nodded as Harrison walked into his mother's extended arms. "Yeah."  
  
"Mommy" Nick said, pointing to Sara, who waved "is going to have a baby."   
  
"Whoa, are you really?" Harrison said, turning around in his mothers arms. Sara cringed as he said 'whoa', which he obviously picked up from Greg.  
  
"Yep, I really am." Sara beamed.  
  
"Cool." Harrison said, content with that answer. Elle on the other hand, wanted to know more.  
  
"So a baby is going to come out of Mommy soon?" She asked, looking at her mother and father.  
  
"Yeah" Nick said, reaching over and rubbing Sara's hand.  
  
"A brand new baby?"   
  
Sara laughed "Yes, a brand new baby. Never been used before. Brand new."  
  
Elle just smiled, and snuggled into Nick.   
  
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OK, bad ending? No? What's that you say? You're happy with this chapter? Oh, you're too kind. Much too kind. Well, read and review. That's all I have to say. Woo. 


	15. Three!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
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Sara went to her doctor the day after revealing to her family that she was pregnant. She hadn't known for much longer than they did. She actually found out Tuesday afternoon, and was going to tell Nick the following night. But after she had to leave for North Carolina, she had no time to tell him and had to wait until she came home. During the plane ride, she had thought of ways to tell Nick. It didn't work and she only made herself nervous about the thought of telling Nick that they were expecting another baby. They hadn't really talked about it, being so pre-occupied with their children. But she thought that now would be a good time to have a baby as the twins began school.   
  
Sara found out that she was a month and a half along. 5 and three-quarters of a week, to be exact. It was too early to tell the sex of the baby, but Sara had a premonition that she was going to have a boy. Boy or girl, the Stokes family just wanted a healthy baby. A brand new healthy baby, as Elle reminded them.  
  
She had gone to work the night before to reveal the news to the rest of the team. Grissom, seemed less than surprised that the couple was expecting. Warrick was delighted at the thought of more Stokes children. "Hey, if the new baby is anything like the twins, you'll have the perfect all-American family." Catherine was overjoyed and began to rub Sara's tummy whenever she saw her, although you couldn't really even tell yet. Greg, who was still getting over the idea of Sara even being married to Nick, was thrilled and asked to be the godfather. Warrick was Elle's and Nick's brother, John, was Harrison's. "Sure Greg, we couldn't have thought of anyone more perfect to be the godfather." Sara said, hugging the now beaming Greg.  
  
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6 months had passed, and with each month, Sara's stomach began to grow bigger and bigger. Elle was a little weary about touching her mother's expanding belly. "Mommy, are you sure I won't hurt you?" Elle said, only lightly rubbing it. Harrison on the other hand like to touch her stomach as much as he could, rubbing lotion on it and holding his little tape cassette player up to the stomach with the song "Lullaby" by Billy Joel. Preschool had ended for the twins about a week earlier, and they were nearing the end of March. Sara had another doctor's appointment today, and with the twin's usual sitter on vacation, Nick was forced to bring them to the appointment.  
  
"Now don't move from this spot. If I come out, and you're dancing like a jelly bean, Mommy is not going to be happy." Sara said, placing some toys down on the waiting room floor as Nick signed her in at the receptionist desk.  
  
"Don't worry, Mrs. Stokes. This place is rarely full of activity, so I'll keep an eye on your young ones." The receptionist said. Sara smiled politely at her, she looked no younger than 60 with curly white hair.  
  
"Thank you, we shouldn't be very long." Sara said, walking into the examination room.  
  
"OK you guys, we'll be right in here. Don't try anything funny." Nick said, tickling Elle in her side and following Sara into the room.  
  
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Stokes. Its so nice to see you again." Dr. Robel said, getting her chart out of a file cabinet. "Wow, you seem to be progressing nicely." He said, indicating her large stomach.  
  
"Yeah, I feel enormous." Sara said, getting up onto the examination bed, with a little help from Nick.   
  
"OK, you probably want to do the sonogram before I ask you questions. Am I right?" Dr. Robel said, getting the cart with all of the sonogram equipment on it.  
  
"Yes, please." Nick said, rolling a stool over from the corner of the room and sitting next to Sara.  
  
"OK, Sara, if you could just lift your shirt up to right above your belly, that'd be great." Dr. Robel said, applying the customary cream to Sara's large stomach. "OK, can you see this?" He said, pointing to a certain position on the screen.  
  
"That blob?" Nick asked, scrunching his forehead.   
  
"Yes, that blob is your child. See the fingers?" He said, pointing to another area on the screen. At that moment, Elle walked through the door.  
  
"Daddy! Tell Harrison to stop bothering me." She said, climbing into Nick's lap.  
  
"Nick, go get Harrison in here. Sorry, Dr. Robel but they're at this age where they don't know how to get along anymore." Sara said, embarrassed that, here she was, barely able to take care of two kids, and now she's having another.   
  
"It's no problem, some children like to see the new baby before it comes out." He said. He was the same doctor who delivered Elle and Harrison, and to see them older made him nostalgic. "Hi Elle, how are you?" He said, as Nick came back in with Harrison.   
  
"I'm fine. Mommy's having a brand new baby!" Elle said, pointing to her mother's stomach.  
  
"I know, want to see what it looks like on the screen?" He said to her. Elle ran over to him and he helped her onto his lap. "Now, this is the baby's fingers. And.. wait a second.. Mrs. Stokes?" Dr. Robel said. She always told him to call her Sara, they've known each other for so long that formalities were no longer needed, but he still felt uncomfortable not using them.  
  
"Yes, Dr. Robel?" She said, taking her attention off of Harrison and focusing it on what Dr. Robel had to say.  
  
"You're only expecting one newborn, right?" He said, going over his papers from her last visit a month ago.  
  
"Yes, only one." She said, looking at Nick and back at Dr. Robel.  
  
"Well, from what I can see, well really, what I can hear, well, what I'm saying is" Dr. Robel started to go on.  
  
"What's the matter, Doctor?" Nick asked, now worried about his wife and unborn child.  
  
"Listen." Dr. Robel said, taking Elle off his lap and moving around on Sara's stomach. "Hear that?"  
  
"Yes, isn't that the baby's heartbeat?" Sara questioned.  
  
"Yes, it is. But now listen." As he moved over Sara's stomach, they heard a new heartbeat.  
  
"Oh my God" Sara said, low enough to be a whisper.  
  
"Twins?" Nick asked.  
  
"I'm a twin!" Elle said, not really understanding what was happening. "See? Me and Harrison are twins." She said, grabbing Harrison around the neck and pulling his face towards hers.  
  
"Yes, I see. Mrs. Stokes, listen again."   
  
She looked at Nick and mouthed "Twins? Again?" He looked just as confused as she did.  
  
"That's a third heartbeat." Dr. Robel said, looking from the monitor to the shocked couple.   
  
"Wait a second" Nick said. "That's a third heartbeat? I mean, are you sure you're not hearing Sara's heart beating?"  
  
"No Mr. Stokes, that's the heartbeat of another baby. Congratulations, you're having triplets!" Dr. Robel said, smiling at the dumbfounded couple.  
  
"What? Triplets? Dr. Robel, are you sure? Triplets? As in, 3 babies all at one?" Sara exasperated.  
  
"Yes, triplets. Now, we could try to figure out the sex of each one now, although it still may be a little too early. From what we can see here" Dr. Robel said, moving again around Sara's stomach. "I can see that one of your three is a boy."  
  
"A boy? Cool, see Elle? I told you Mommy was having a brother, not a sister." He said, sticking his tongue out at her.  
  
"Hey guys, cool it." Nick said, placing Elle on his left and Harrison on his right.   
  
"And this one" he said, pointing again towards a 'blob' on the monitor "that's a girl. So far, we have a boy, a girl, and an undetermined."   
  
"An undetermined?" Nick asked, still stunned from the news.  
  
"Well, your third child, his or her back is facing us, making it difficult to tell the sex." Dr. Robel said. He looked at the young family. "Shall we start with the questions?"   
  
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Nick walked into work that night, still flabbergasted from the news earlier in the day.  
  
"Hey Nicky" Catherine said, walking into the break room. "Whoa, you look like you just saw a ghost."  
  
"Or three" Nick mumbled under his breath. It wasn't that he didn't want triplets, because he did. He wanted as many kids as Sara could possibly push out, but three? How were they going to afford having three more?  
  
"What was that?" Catherine asked, taking a seat at the table with a newspaper and a cup of coffee.  
  
"We went to the OB/GYN today." Nick said, figuring it'd be best to break the news to Catherine first.  
  
"And what'd they say?" She asked, taking a sip of her coffee.   
  
"Well, Sara's in perfect health and all, but she's.. um.. she's.. we're having triplets." He said, looking up at her.  
  
"Triplets? Wow, well that's just great! Are the twins excited? Is Sara?" She quizzed.  
  
"We haven't really told the twins yet, but Sara was more shocked than anything else. It's just that we got news like this when she was pregnant with the twins. But now, I mean, we're going to have 5 kids. 5 children."   
  
"Oh Nick" Catherine said, understanding quickly his concerns. "You guys are going to do fine. You're house is big enough for 5 more, right?"  
  
"Yeah, we have the guest room and a little work to the basement, and we could make that a bedroom. Its just, a surprise, that's all. We're excited, though." He said, just as Warrick and Grissom walked in, with Greg behind them.  
  
"Hey guys, Nicky has some news." Catherine said, getting up from her seat and putting her coffee mug in the sink.  
  
"What's going on, man?" Warrick queried.  
  
"Its Sara." He said.  
  
"What's wrong with Sara?" Grissom asked.  
  
"Nothing wrong with Sara, she's fine. We went to the doctor today, and he told us we're having three instead of one." Nick said, calmly as he would say 'Hey, I bought a new shirt.'  
  
"Three babies instead of one?" Greg said, now paying attention at the thought of Nick and Sara having five kids.   
  
"Yep, three babies. So June comes, and Sara and I have three children." Nick said, sitting on the couch.  
  
"Well, congratulation, Nick. That's great." Warrick said, going over to give his friend a hug.  
  
As Nick got up to give Warrick a hug, he said "Thanks, man."  
  
Greg and Grissom did the same, and so did Catherine.   
  
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Aah, triplets! Read and review. Woohoo!! 


	16. Two Boys and a Girl

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
Yes, I have no life whatsoever and I am writing yet another chapter. ............................................................................ ...........….  
  
March had come and gone, as did April and May. By the time June rolled around, Sara was ready to take these babies out herself. At times, she felt uneasy in her body, as she was used to being thinner. With the twins, she hadn't grown as big as she had during this pregnancy. Her maternity clothes were an extra large, and we're beginning to become too tight. 'Only a week left' Sara kept repeating to herself. They had done up the guest bedroom to be a nursery, with three cribs and two changing tables. Catherine had donated the one she had used when Lindsey was a baby, to help the young couple keep within the amount of money they had. Nick's parents had flown in the night before, and Sara's were due to arrive tomorrow morning. They were staying in a hotel about 5 blocks from the Stokes home.   
  
"Mommy, are those babies ever going to come out?" Elle asked, as they sat on the porch in their backyard. They were having a barbeque/baby shower with everyone from work and the soon-to-be grandparents. Catherine had brought Lindsey, and Greg had brought Carly along. Sara was happy to see that there relationship was working out so well. They had been together almost a year.   
  
"Soon, sweetheart, soon." Sara said, rubbing Elle's head as she laid it on top of Sara's stomach, to see if she could hear anything. It was customary for Elle to come into Sara's bedroom at night, and sit and just listen to the babies.   
  
"No soon! I want them to be here now." Elle said, picking her head up after hearing nothing.  
  
"Well, you're just going to have to wait. There's nothing Mommy can do. These babies decide when they want to come out." Sara said, picking up a gift box off the floor with a tag that read in pink, curly letters 'Elle.'   
  
"Look sweetie, somebody brought a gift for you." Sara knew who it was from, she had seen Grissom walk in with the pink package behind his back and had placed it on one of the porch steps. "I wonder what it could be" she said, watching as Elle ripped at the wrapping paper.  
  
"Ooh, Mommy, look." said Elle, throwing the box and tissue paper to the side and holding up the white t-shirt. In pink and purple glittery writing, it said 'Best Big Sister.'   
  
"Elle, its beautiful. Uncle Grissom brought it." she said, pointing towards where Grissom and Nick were talking. Grissom had looked up and saw Elle holding the shirt. He held up his arms to her, and she ran towards him. At the same time, Nick had made his way up over to where Sara was sitting, with her legs outstretched.  
  
"How is my beautiful wife?" Nick asked. After not getting a reply, he turned around to see what was keeping Sara from answering.  
  
"She's in labor. My water just broke." Sara said, trying to get up.  
  
"What? Are you sure?" Nick said, dropping the soda he had just poured for himself.  
  
"Yes Nick, I'm absolutely positive." She said, getting up.  
  
"OK, let me go get Catherine and she'll bring you out to the car. Greg! Greg!" He called out as Greg ran towards him. "Greg, go get the duffel bag that's next to our bedroom door and bring it out to my Tahoe."  
  
"Why?"   
  
"Sara's going into labor." He said, running off to get Warrick as Catherine walked out of the house to see what the commotion was.  
  
"What's going on here?" Catherine asked, grabbing onto Sara's arm and helping her walk into the house.  
  
"Oh nothing really, Nick spilled some soda, and I'm getting ready to give birth to triplets." She said, making her way towards the front door. Catherine smiled. "Do you mind walking me to the car?"  
  
"Yes, oh wow. OK, come on, lets go!" She said, as Greg ran past them to unlock the Tahoe. While Sara made her way to the car, Nick had scooped up Elle in his arms and Warrick grabbed Harrison.   
  
"Hey Warrick, do you mind driving with these two to the hospital? Sara doesn't need to hear them bickering in the back seat right now." He said, handing Elle over to Warrick.  
  
"Sure, man. Come on guys, Mommy's going to have the babies!" he said, going out to his car. "Hey Carly, you and Greg want to ride with me?"   
  
"Alright, but I think Greg went to help out." Carly said, taking Harrison out of Warrick's arms so that he could get his car keys out.   
  
"Warrick, me, Catherine and Lindsey will follow behind you guys." Grissom said, calling Lindsey over.  
  
"Mommy!" Elle said, jumping out of Warrick's arms as they made their way outside.  
  
"Hey baby" she said, as Nick climbed into the driver's seat. "I'll see you at the hospital, OK, honey?"  
  
"OK Mommy." She said, as she followed Warrick to his car.  
  
"Come on Greg, you and Carly are riding with us." Warrick said, as Greg closed the trunk to Nick's Tahoe.  
  
"Yeah, and Cath, you're coming with me and Lindsey." Grissom said, following behind as he made sure the front door was locked behind them.  
  
They all drove to the hospital, one Tahoe behind the other. Three in a row. Sara found it quite ironic. Three Tahoes going to the same place to be there when three babies are born.   
  
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Four and a half hours later, and Sara had given birth to the first of the three children. Nick walked out of the delivery room, practically glowing.  
  
"A girl, she's had a girl." He said, picking Harrison up off the floor as Elle slept in one of the waiting room chairs.   
  
"Congratulations, Nicky."  
  
"Yeah, thanks. They're giving her a little breather before pushing out the next one. It was amazing" Nick said. With the twins, Sara had to have a C-section, but this time she had done it naturally. She wanted no drugs, but she could only take so much pain, and finally gave in and had an epidural.  
  
"Mr. Stokes" a nurse called out, popping her head out from the delivery room. "Your wife wants you."  
  
"OK, thanks." He said, turning back around to his friends and family. "I'll be back."  
  
45 minutes later, and Nick walked out in the same fashion he had before.  
  
"She had a boy" he said, looking as his twins slept in waiting room chairs. "She's taking another rest. Let me go back in there, I just wanted to let you guys know." He said, getting a hug from Catherine.  
  
"We'll be here" she called out, as Lindsey began to fall asleep in a waiting room chair.  
  
An hour and a half later, and Nick walked out once more, with the same glow he had the previous two times.  
  
"Another boy. Two boys and a girl. Three sons and two daughter. Five children." Nick said, validating it for himself and for the rest of the people. An elderly couple sitting in the waiting area smiled at him, as he woke up Elle and Harrison.  
  
"Hey guys, did you sleep well?"  
  
"Yeah Daddy, did Mommy have the babies?" Elle asked, rubbing her eyes sleepily.  
  
"Yup, she had two boys and a girl."  
  
"Really?" Harrison asked, perking up as he heard the news.  
  
"Really. You can't see the babies right now, but you can see Mommy. She wants to see you two." said Nick.  
  
"OK Daddy, but can you carry me? I'm too sleepy to walk." Elle said, holding his arms up to him.  
  
"Of course, Elle." he said, grabbing onto one of Harrison's hands.   
  
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Aww, are you happy? I am. Please, read and review! 


	17. Meet Our Bigger Family

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
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Sara woke up at 2AM to the sound of a baby cry. It was September, and the triplets had since been moved into their nursery. As Sara walked in, she easily identified the crier. It was her son, the last to be born. Sara and Nick had decided to name him Ethan Alexander Stokes, and Greg and Carly were the godparents. Above Ethan's crib, a calligrapher had come in and air-brushed his name onto the wall, and the same were done for the other two. It was beautiful, and something that Sara had wanted to do with the twins, but at the time Nick and Sara didn't have enough money to hire a calligrapher.   
  
"Oh Ethan, what's wrong?" she asked, picking him up out of the crib and sitting in the rocking chair that Warrick's mother had bought for them. Lying across the back was a quilt that she had made. As Sara rocked her son, he yawned and fell back to sleep. Her worst fear was that one of her children crying, resulting in a Domino effect where one woke up right after the other, each crying. Thankfully, they hadn't happened.. yet.  
  
The minute she placed Ethan back in his crib, she heard a baby gurgle. She turned around to see her daughter, Olivia Grace, wide awake in her own crib. Her godparents were Catherine and to much of his shock, Brass. Sara told him that they couldn't have imagined not having him, as he had fought to let Sara and Nick get married, when many of their co-workers outside of the night shift had seen it as a bad idea.   
  
"Sweetie, did Ethan wake you up?" she said, picking up a stuffed animal off the night stand and placing it in her daughter's crib. In a matter of seconds, she was back to sleep. Sara looked at the baby crib in the right corner of the room, and then at the baby that gave her and Nick the least amount of trouble. Their son, Benjamin Andrew. Sara thought that their choice as Grissom for his godfather was perfect, as both were quiet and stayed to themselves. Ben didn't request as much attention as Ethan or Olivia. His godmother was Lindsey, who was overjoyed with the idea of being a godmother.   
  
Elle's godmother was one of Warrick's ex-girlfriends. Warrick had proposed to her, but she rejected his offer because she couldn't live with someone who slept on an opposite schedule of her. They hadn't heard much from her, but Elle didn't seem to be too affected. For Harrison, Nick's cousin, Jennifer was the godmother. She had lived in Vegas from the time Sara was pregnant, until a year after birth. But her husband was soon transferred to Maine, and Harrison hadn't seen much of her. Harrison didn't seem to dismayed by it.  
  
A few hours later, at around 5 in the morning, another cry came from the nursery, waking Nick and Sara up again.   
  
"My God, aren't they ever tired?" Nick questioned, having difficulty sleeping off of the little sleep he got each night.  
  
"Nicky, their babies. The twins were the same way, even worse. Remember, Elle would cry for hours just for no reason and then all of a sudden she'd be fine? Its just something they do" she said, getting out of bed and putting her robe on. All of a sudden, just as Nick was making himself comfortable in bed after being rudely awakened, they heard a second cry. Sara hit him on the butt. "C'mon Nicky boy, time to take care of our children." Nick got up, and followed Sara towards the nursery.  
  
"Daddy" Harrison said, coming out of his bedroom, one pant leg above his knee and one dragging along the floor. "Aren't the babies tired of crying? They do it every night!" He said, yawning.  
  
"You did too, bud. Just go back to sleep, OK?" He said, leading Harrison back into his room and tucking him into bed. After he knew Harrison was back asleep, he made his way back over to the nursery.  
  
"Whose angry this morning?" he said, watching as Sara walked over to the cribs.  
  
"It would be our two boys, Mr. Ethan and Mr. Ben. Who do you want?" she said, making her way over to where Nick was standing.  
  
"Hmmm.." he pondered. "I'll take our lovely Mr. Benjamin." He said, walking over to the crib of his son. "Hey Benny, yeah, yeah. Oh, I know." He said, picking him up.  
  
After Nick and Sara got the two back to sleep, they walked back into their bedroom.   
  
"Nicky, I hope the twins aren't tired. Today's a big day." she said, disrobing and getting into bed.  
  
"They'll be fine honey. They're excited to go." He said, pulling her close so that her back was to his chest.  
  
"Mmm.. alright, I'll believe you. Can you believe they're starting kindergarten today?" she said, getting relaxed in Nick's warm embrace.  
  
"I know, I can still remember when they were the triplets age." he said, falling asleep.  
  
"Me too."   
  
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I know, short chapter. Don't hate me, but I just wanted to let you know the ages and the godparents and all that jazz. Give me some suggestions, I don't really know where to go from here. Read and review!! 


	18. Kindergarten

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
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Sara had brought the twins to kindergarten today. Class started at 10AM, and was over at 1PM. Nick wanted to come, but Ethan had a temper tantrum and couldn't leave him with the babysitter, screaming his head off. The twins were disappointed that Nick wasn't there. Preschool was a big experience, but kindergarten was even bigger. They were in an actual school now, not just some church's basement. Nick held Ethan as he said goodbye to his oldest children, his first borns. He could tell something was going on with them, but just brushed it off as he figured they were nervous for kindergarten. They weren't going to be in the same class, and they had never been separated for more than a couple of hours. Sara didn't know how either of them would react.  
  
She had brought Elle with her the day before, and had bought new outfits for the first few days. Harrison had voiced his opinion that he didn't want to match Elle anymore. They were "big kids" as he said. Sara agreed, figuring no one would even notice that the two matched because now they were in different classes, with different teachers.   
  
Sara walked into the elementary school, and headed for the last hallway which included the rooms of the kindergarten classes. Elle's room came first, Room 200.   
  
"Elle, sweetie, this is your room." they said. Other parents had been dropping their kids off. Some mothers were crying, as the fathers comforted them. Some parents waved and said quick goodbyes, to avoid any tears. And others simply directed their children to their classroom, and left. No emotions involved. Their kids were out of their hair for a couple of hours, and that's all that mattered to them. Not that this was a big step in their children's life. It saddened Sara. She could never imagine doing that to her twins.  
  
"OK, mommy." Elle let go of Sara's hand, and poked her head inside the classroom. "Mommy, look. The walls are pink!" Elle exclaimed. Seeing her favorite color splashed across the walls of her new classroom made her feel a little more comfortable.  
  
"Oh, its so pretty. And look" Sara said, lowering herself to Elle's height and pointing. "There's Amy!" Elle looked to where her mother's finger was pointed, and spotted the little blonde girl, who could've been Elle's twin if her hair was curly.   
  
"Amy!!" Elle called out, startling a little boy who was walking in front of her. Sara apologized as her daughter ran for her friend. As Sara got up, a young woman, in her mid-20s walked up to Sara.   
  
"Hi, I'm Mrs. Hobey. Is that your little girl?" the young woman said, pointing towards where Elle was seated, next to Amy.  
  
"Yes, hi, I'm Sara Stokes. This is my son, Elle's twin, Harrison. He'll be down the hall." she said, shaking Harrison's hand as she held it.  
  
"Well, its very nice to meet you Mrs. Stokes. I'll be Elle's teacher for the school year. I see she already knows one of her classmates." she said, smiling widely as parents walked into the classroom with their children. She was a very pretty teacher, with sparkly white teeth and long red hair.   
  
"Yes, her and Amy went to preschool together. We didn't even know they'd be going to the same school, let alone be in the same class."   
  
"Its always good for a child to be acquainted with at least one of their classmates. Class will be over at 1PM today, does Elle take a bus?" Mrs. Hobey asked, looking at her watch.   
  
"No, either me or my husband will be picking her up. We have newborns, triplets, at home so its been kind of crazy for all of us lately." Sara explained.  
  
"Well, I'll make sure to ask Elle about the new triplets in the house. Most kids love to talk about new siblings, especially babies." she said, practically glowing. Sara supposed she was either extremely nervous about the first day, or couldn't wait to begin. "Do you like the new babies, Harrison?" she asked, looking down at the little boy.  
  
"They're OK, except they make too much noise." he said, making the older women laugh.  
  
"OK, well let me go take him to his classroom and we'll see you later." said Sara, noticing Harrison getting antsy. "Bye Elle!" she said, watching as Elle waved to her.  
  
"Bye Mommy! Bye Harrison!" she said, waving. Harrison said goodbye, and they made their way towards Room 205.   
  
As Sara approached the classroom, she noticed a serious change in mood and sound. Mrs. Hobey's room was loud, and fun and bright. Harrison's room did not seem so happy.  
  
"Hello" a woman said, standing at the front door. She looked about 50 years old, with stark white hair that was pulled into a small bun. She seemed very serious, and not as peppy as Mrs. Hobey.  
  
"Hi, I'm Sara Stokes." Sara held out her hand, but the woman stood with her arms crossed in front of her, and she from time to time turn her head into the classroom, and shush the students who were already seated.  
  
"Hello, Mrs. Stokes. I'm Mrs. Stevenson. Is this one of my students?" she asked, looking down as Harrison smiled up. Sara's heart broke as she saw Mrs. Stevenson not even crack a slight smile.  
  
"Yes, this is Harrison Stokes." Harrison waved, and again, got no reply.  
  
"He can go get seated, his name will be on the front of the desk. You will have a minute to say goodbye, and then you must leave, Mrs. Stokes." she said, looking at her watch. Sara gave Harrison a look of sarcasm. 'This woman can't be serious, he's 4 years old' Sara though. As if reading her mind, Mrs. Stevenson turned around and said, "Mrs. Stokes, I'm timing you."  
  
After they found his seat and made sure he was comfortable, Sara kneeled down. "OK Har, I'm going to go home now. If anything happens, you can always go to the main office and they'll call either me or Dad, OK?" she said, helping him take his backpack off. He had chosen green, and Elle had chosen a light pink one.  
  
"OK Mom, but the teacher seems really not nice." he said, taking a pencil out of his pencil case.  
  
"I know sweetie, but maybe she's just having a bad day. I'm sure she'll be nice once everyone gets settled." she said. "I'll see you later, alright?" she said, kissing him on the forehead.  
  
"OK Mommy, bye." he said.  
  
"Mrs. Stokes, job well done. You still had 14 seconds to spare." Mrs. Stevenson said, as Sara exited the classroom, which was painted a chalky white color.  
  
"Listen here, Mrs. Stevenson." Sara said, angry with the teacher. "My son is a good kid, and he doesn't deserve a bitchy teacher, so if you're not going to be nice to him, I can easily switch him into a different class with a nice, young teacher like Mrs. Hobey, right there." Sara said, pointing to the teacher who was still standing outside the classroom with a shimmering smile on her face. "So I suggest you change your attitude, or you're going to have a problem. Not only with me, but with my husband as well. Do we understand, Mrs. Stevenson?"   
  
Mrs. Stevenson just stood there, shocked with what she had just heard. Some parents stood by, shocked at the random outburst from a mother who seemed calm. They all wanted to do the same, but none had the guts. They were glad someone had. She couldn't even begin to respond. "Goodbye Mrs. Stevenson. We'll see you later." Sara said, as she began to walk out. She winked to Harrison, and peeked inside Elle's classroom as she was still talking with Amy.   
  
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"Hey Sar, how'd the kids like their teachers?" Nick asked from the nursery as he heard her come in.  
  
"Oh, Elle loved hers. She's really nice, Mrs. Hobey. But Harrison's, my God, its as if Satan decided to go into teaching." she said, grabbing a diaper out of the Diaper Genie to help Nick, who was changing a fidgety Olivia.   
  
"Sara…" Nick began.  
  
"What? I didn't hurt the teacher or anything." she said, picking Benjamin up out of his crib. "I didn't."  
  
Nick could see right through her, and knew she did something to the teacher, either physically or verbally. "Sara, what'd you do?"  
  
"Nicky, you would have done the same if you saw how she was. Poor Harrison had the biggest smile on his face, and she just stared at him with her cold eyes. I felt so bad for him, I had to say something." she said, sitting in the rocking chair, cuddling Ben.  
  
"Well, what did you say, Sar?" he asked, placing Olivia on the floor to play with the toys that were sprawled across the floor.   
  
"I just told her that if she didn't change her manner, we're going to switch Harrison into a different class." Sara said, seating Ben on the floor next to his sister. Nick looked at her, with a confused expression on his face. "Nicky, teachers get paid by how many students they teach each day. So one less student for Mrs. Stevenson, the less money she'll make."  
  
"Ooh" he said, handing a rubbing frog to Olivia. "I'm just worried that if you say something to his teacher that rubs her the wrong way, she'll treat Harrison differently."   
  
"But that won't happen, Nicky. I promise, there won't be another outburst like that." she said, picking up Ben who had fallen back to sleep and placing him in his crib. "Not today."   
  
"Sara…" said Nick.  
  
"Nicky, just pick up Olivia and bring her into our room. We can use a little more sleep, and the twins don't have to be picked up for a few more hours. She'll fall asleep the second we do." she said, leading the way towards their bedroom.  
  
In a matter of 15 minutes, the triplets, Nick and Sara were fast asleep.  
  
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Sara woke up to the sound of the answering machine beep. 'I wonder who called' Sara thought, getting ready to listen to whatever message the person decided to leave.   
  
"Hello, Mr. or Mrs. Stokes. This is Mrs. Stevenson, from Hillside Elementary School. You seem to be late to pick up your twins, Elle and Harrison. Its almost 2PM, they should have been picked up an hour ago. Please be sure to get here as soon as possible. Thank you." she heard the phone click, and the machine go off. She jumped out of bed.  
  
"Nicky! Nicky!" she said, shaking him to wake him up. "Nicky, we forgot to pick the twins up at kindergarten. Nicky!"   
  
He woke up at the sound of 'forgot' and 'twins'. "What? What happened?" he asked, jumping out of bed, still half asleep.  
  
"Shit Nick, almost kill Olivia." Sara said, watching as he almost rolled over their baby. "We forgot to pick the twins up, can you go get them?" she asked, as she picked up Olivia who had started to cry.  
  
"Sar, why can't you go?" he asked, pulling on a pair of flip flops.  
  
"I can't go because she's hungry, and I haven't made any bottles today." she said, unbuttoning her shirt.   
  
"Ugh, OK. What rooms are they in?" Nick asked, grabbing his keys off the night table.  
  
"Elle's in 200, and Harrison is in 205. It's the last hallway. Shit Nick, how'd we just forget about them?" Sara said, angry with herself that she had completely forgotten about her children.   
  
"I don't know, Sar. I'll be right back." he said, running out the front door and to the new minivan they had sitting in the driveway. There hadn't been enough room in the Tahoe for three car seats, and the twins. Sara finally gave in, and a month ago they had purchased a dark blue Town & Country minivan.  
  
"Shit" Nick yelled, as he tried to put the car into drive but turned on the wind shield wipers instead. "Shit!" he yelled, trying again but somehow turning the radio on. "I hate this Barney crap." he said, as the voice of the purple dinosaur came through the speakers. "Finally" Nick exclaimed, as he got the car into drive.  
  
As he pulled up to the elementary school, he saw two small figures sitting on the front steps of the school and a tall, thin figure standing behind them with her arms crossed in front of them. He put the car into Park after many tries, and got out.  
  
"Hey guys, I'm so sorry I'm late." Nick said, as he walked up to the school. "Hi, I'm Nick Stokes. I really am so sorry, my wife and I fell asleep. Its been sort of crazy at our house lately, we had triplets a few months ago." he said, picking Elle up off the steps and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm so sorry I was late, baby."   
  
"Its OK, Daddy. But I don't think she's very happy about it." Elle said, pointing over her shoulder at the teacher standing behind them.   
  
"Yes, Mr. Stokes. I do hope that you and your wife begin to get on a schedule where you remember your children. Its not every day that I would be so willing to stay with your children, an hour after school has concluded for the day." she said, walking towards her car.  
  
"Hey Har, sorry for being so late bud--." Nick said, placing Elle back down on the cement. He saw no Harrison, but just his Spiderman lunchbox. "Harrison??" Nick asked, beginning to get worried. He turned around and saw Harrison approaching the highway. "Harrison!!! Harrison!!" Nick yelled. "Stop right there!!!" he began to run after him, with his lunchbox in his hand and Elle trailing behind him.  
  
"Daddy! How could you forget us?" Harrison asked, tears forming in his eyes.   
  
"I'm so sorry, buddy. I really am. And so is Mommy. You know we would never purposely be late." he said, leaning down to Harrison's stature.  
  
"Its because of those stupid babies, right?" Harrison asked, turning away from his father and towards the highway.  
  
"No, me and Mommy still love you both just as much as we did before the triplets came. Its just that this is new, to all of us." He said, trying to turn Harrison around and Elle moved toward them. Nick turned away for a second to make sure Elle had reached them OK, and when he turned around Harrison was in the middle of the highway.  
  
"Daddy, I'm walking home." he said. As he tried to reach the other side of the road, stopping when he saw a car coming, a car sped out a side street.   
  
"Harrison!!" Nick yelled, too late to his son.  
  
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Oh man, I know I said this would be a happy story, but I have a few ideas up my sleeve so that I can finally end this thing. Please, read and review. 


	19. The Hospital

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
I know some of you have had problems with some parts of my story, but hey, its fan fiction. Key word there is - fiction. I don't think these things really matter to the story. If it does, I'm sorry but you're just going to have to deal with it. ...........….............................................................. ...........….  
  
"Sar.. Sar.. Come on, wake up." Nick screamed into his phone as he followed the ambulance. He couldn't go with Harrison because Elle couldn't, and Nick couldn't just leave Elle at the park. He felt completely guilty for leaving him alone in the ambulance, but he figured that was the last thing he should be worried about.   
  
"Hello?" Sara answered. Nick could hear a crying baby in the background, but couldn't figure out who it was.   
  
"Sara? Sara, something happened." Nick practically screamed into the cell phone reciever. Sara could hear Elle singing along to a Barney song, but she could also tell by the way Nick was talking that something was seriously wrong.  
  
"What's wrong, Nick?" Sara asked, placing a crying Olivia down in her crib.  
  
"Its Harrison."   
  
"Oh my God" Sara whispered, more to herself than to Nick.  
  
"Sara, he was hit by a car." Nick said, frantically. He could hear her start to cry on the other end. Elle seemed to not even be fazed by the accident she had just witnessed.  
  
"Oh my God.. Nick.. Is he OK?" Sara asked, picking up her own cell phone and began to dial Catherine's phone number.   
  
"I don't know Sara. He was hit.. and I couldn't help him. Sara.. Sara.. I'm so sorry." Nick said, beginning to cry himself. "I'm following the ambulance right now. They're taking us to Oak Hill Hospital. Can you meet us there?"  
  
"I'm on my way right now, I need to get someone to come here to be with the babies. I'm calling Catherine. Hello Cath?" Nick could hear her begin a conversation with Catherine, which he figured was on her cell phone. He hung up as they pulled into the Emergency Room entrance of the hospital.  
  
As Nick got out of the car, and helped Elle out, Harrison was being taken out of the ambulance. He was awake.  
  
"Harrison? Harrison, buddy, how are you feeling?" Nick asked, grabbing Harrison's hand.   
  
"I don't feel too good, Daddy. My belly hurts." Harrison said, rubbing his stomach with his other hand.  
  
"I know, bud. I know. The doctors are going to take really good care of you, I promise." Nick said, picking Elle up as she fell behind, running as fast as she could but not fast enough.  
  
"Hey Harrison, look, I found a toy in the backseat of Daddy's car." Elle said, looking down on her twin brother as he laid on the gurney.  
  
"Oh cool, I've been looking for that for so long." he said as Elle reached down and placed it in his hand. "Where's Mommy?" Harrison asked, looking around but only seeing doctors.  
  
"She's on her way. She'll be here soon." said Nick.  
  
"Mr. Stokes, I'm sorry but you can't come in here. You should go wait in the waiting room, we'll get you as soon as we conclude." the doctor said, leaving Nick holding Elle in the doorway to the trauma room.  
  
"Come on Elle, lets go wait for Mommy." he said, putting her down on the floor and grabbing her hand. As they walked into the waiting room, they found Sara talking to a receptionist.  
  
"Mrs. Stokes, please calm down." Nick could hear the receptionist say.  
  
"Mommy!" Elle called out as soon as she saw Sara, and ran towards her.  
  
"Hey baby, where's Daddy?" Sara said, and looked up when she saw Sara point towards him.  
  
"Nick, how is he?" she said, meeting up with Nick.  
  
"I don't know, they brought him into the trauma room over there. The doctor told us to hang around in the waiting room, and when they finish, they'll come and get us." Nick said, leading the way for is wife and daughter to the waiting room.  
  
"Daddy, I'm hungry." Elle said, as she made herself comfortable on Nick's lap.  
  
"Oh Nick, she hasn't eaten since breakfast. Can you go get her something out of the vending machine? Like crackers or something?" Sara said, helping Elle off of Nick's lap and onto her's.  
  
"Elle, are you OK? What happened?" Sara asked, running her fingers through her daughter's blonde curls.  
  
"I'm fine, Mommy. But the car hit Harrison. Daddy tried to help him, but Harrison just cried. Then he went to sleep." Elle said, playing with her mother's wedding ring which she was known to do very much.  
  
"He went to sleep? Did he wake up?" Sara said, becoming much more concerned with her son's condition.  
  
"Yeah, I gave him a toy that I found in the back seat of Daddy's car." Elle said, putting the ring on her finger and then placing it back on her mothers. Sara breathed a sigh of relief, as Nick returned with a bag of mini chocolate chip cookies, and a bag of peanut butter crackers.  
  
"What were my two ladies talking about?" Nick asked, handing the back of peanut butter crackers to Elle.  
  
"Oh, Elle was telling me about how Harrison got hurt and --"  
  
"Sara, I'm so sorry. I should have been paying more attention, but it was too late and he was already in the street --" Nick began, not realizing what Elle had exactly told him.  
  
"What? How could you not be paying attention to him, Nick? The whole reason that you went to the elementary school was to pick them up, and then what? You just forgot about them?" Sara yelled, making the other people in the waiting room stare at her, as Warrick walked in with Greg right behind him.  
  
"Hey guys, are we interrupting anything?" Warrick asked, as Elle ran up to him.  
  
"Hey Warrick, want a peanut butter cracker? Daddy just bought them for me." Elle asked, as Warrick picked her up.  
  
"No thanks, sweetie." Warrick said, walking towards where Nick was sitting and Sara was standing, apparently yelling at him.  
  
"How's Harrison?" Greg said, walking into the waiting room.  
  
"We don't know, Greg. He's in the trauma room now. They don't know anything yet." Nick said.   
  
"Mr. and Mrs. Stokes?" the doctor asked, coming out of the trauma room with a chart in his hand.  
  
"Hi, I'm Mrs. Stokes. This is my husband. How's Harrison?" Sara said, running up to the doctor with Nick behind her.  
  
"Hi, I'm Doctor Minter. Harrison's fine, he's sleeping right now, though. The only real medical problem we had was four broken ribs, but other than that, its just bruises and scrapes. He got very lucky, Mrs. Stokes."   
  
"When can we see him?" Nick asked.  
  
"You can see him once the nurse's have cleaned him up. He lost a lot of blood, but we were able to give him transfusions." Dr. Minter said, rechecking his information in the chart.  
  
"Thank you, Doctor." The doctor nodded, and walked back to the reception desk.  
  
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OK, I'm done for now. I'll probably write more tonight or tomorrow morning. Read and review. 


	20. It's Not Apple Juice

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
Wow, Chapter 20. This is really hard for me to believe because I only meant for this to be one chapter long, and it just amazes me. Lord know I want to end this thing soon, so either this will be the last chapter, or the next. Not sure yet, but I'll let you know. Read on!  
  
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"Mr. and Mrs. Stokes?" a young candy-striper called out from the hall leading to the rooms that held many patients from today.  
  
"Yes, that's us." Nick said, getting up and grabbing Sara's hand. "Can we see our son now?"   
  
"Is your son Harrison?" After she saw them nod, she continued. "Please follow me, he's in Room 328." the young woman said, as she led them to a brightly painted green and orange room, with a dinosaur mural on the wall. As they entered, Sara smiled and began to cry tears of joy as she saw her son sitting up in bed, playing with the doctor.  
  
"Harrison!" Sara practically shrieked, causing a boy sitting in the bed next to Harrison's, who was younger, to stir in his sleep. "Oh, sweetheart, are you alright?"  
  
"Yeah, Mommy, I'm fine." he said, as Sara sat herself down by his knees on his bed, and kissing him on the forehead.   
  
"Dr. Minter, when will we be able to take him home?" Nick said, looking from his son to the doctor.  
  
"He should be ready to leave tomorrow, we just want to keep him overnight for observation." he said, getting an automatic reaction from Sara. "Not to worry, Mrs. Stokes. Its become almost policy for us to keep a car accident victim, especially children, here overnight. It makes all us doctors and nurses feel a little better when we discharge them. He got very lucky, Mrs. Stokes." he tousled Harrison's longer hair. "Very lucky." And with that, Dr. Minter was gone.  
  
"Hey buddy, so you're feeling better?" Nick asked, sitting in the chair that Dr. Minter was sitting in before.  
  
"Yeah, Dad. My belly hurts a little, though." Harrison said, reaching up and rubbing where it hurt.   
  
"Its going to hurt for a little while, Harrison. The doctor said you broke a few ribs." Sara said, reaching over and pushing stray strands of hair out of his face.  
  
"I know! Isn't that cool? He said I broke four of them." Harrison said.  
  
"Ha! He's a real Stokes boy. Proud of his injuries." Nick said, giving Harrison a high-five.  
  
"Nick! Its not something to be proud of." Sara said, looking from Nick to Harrison. "Sweetie, you don't want to get hurt just so you can say your hurt." Just as Nick rolled his eyes at her comment, they heard a knock on the door. All three turned around to see Elle, Greg, Warrick and Catherine standing there.   
  
"Harrison!! You're awake!!" Elle yelled, jumping onto Nick's lap and getting into the bed with Harrison. Elle gave him a big kiss on his cheek.  
  
"Ew! Elle!!" Harrison said, trying to push his sister off of him. Sure, he loved his sister, but kisses were like going to the dentist to a four-year old.  
  
"Come on Elle, lets let your brother rest. He got very hurt today." Sara said, helping Elle down off the bed. "Hey Cath?" Sara said, everything catching up with her. When she saw Catherine acknowledge her question, Sara continued. "Aren't you supposed to be watching our other children?"  
  
"Oh, don't worry." Catherine said, as Elle ran to her side. "Grissom's taken care of it."  
  
"What?" Nick, Sara, even Warrick and Greg exclaimed.  
  
"What? Its not like Grissom has never handled children before. He's babysat Elle and Harrison enough to know the basics." Catherine said, as she picked Elle up off the floor and headed to Harrison's bedside where everyone else stood.  
  
"Yeah, Cath, he has. But it was never at the same time. We were scared to have him have the twins at the same time, but now triplets?" Nick asked, worrying more and more as each second went by about the safety of his children under the care of Grissom. Sure, he trusted him, but Nick could barely handle the triplets.  
  
"Nick, do I detest a little distrust in our faithful leader?" Catherine questioned.  
  
"No Catherine, but he's taking care of three infants all by himself?" Sara asked, answering for her husband.  
  
"Sara, Sara, Sara. Trust me, they're fine." Catherine asked, winking at Elle who had sat herself down at the end of Harrison's bed.  
  
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"Shh! Olivia, its going to be OK. Mommy and Daddy will be home soon." Grissom said, rocking the baby gently in his arms. "They better be or else.. No, no sweetie. Don't cry. Please? Please stop crying, Olivia."   
  
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"So, they think he'll be out of here by tomorrow?" Warrick asked Nick as they went in search of coffee for them, and the others.  
  
"Yeah, the doctor said they just want to make sure everything's OK. Its normal, especially with children." Nick said, as they made there way to the cafeteria. "They should have coffee in here, right?"   
  
"Yeah, its probably doesn't taste all that great but the girls said they wanted caffeine, didn't they?" Warrick told him, as they reached for the Styrofoam cups on the counter next to the coffee machines. One read 'Decaf' and the other read 'Regular'. Next to the machines were fixings - milk, sugar, creamer, and plastic sticks used as stirrers.  
  
"Hey man, do you really think Grissom is OK with the babies, or should I go home and check on him?" Nick asked, placing a cover on his and Sara's coffees as he prepared to make one for Greg.  
  
"Nick, I'm sure he's doing fine. They're just babies, and its late. I'm sure they're already asleep." Warrick said, grabbing a coffee cup holder with four cup holds, and holding the fifth in his hand.  
  
"Yeah, I guess your right." Nick said, shrugging off any worries he had and knowing he had to focus his attention on his family that was here with him.   
  
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"Oh, I see Mr. Ethan isn't in the mood for sleeping while Uncle Grissom is here, is he?" Grissom asked, picking the infant out of the crib he slept in. Grissom surprised himself at how calm he was around such tiny creatures, but then scolded himself for downing two cups of Jack Daniels. 'Hey, it helped me calm down, right?' he thought to himself.   
  
After Olivia had her screaming and crying rampage that her brothers slept through, Grissom knew he couldn't handle one of the other two doing the same. And then he thought of Olivia waking, and going through the same thing again. Grissom knew there was only one thing that was going to keep him constant during the night, and that was alcohol.   
  
Once Ethan had fallen back asleep, Grissom wondered out loud at how Catherine had gotten him into babysitting for triplets. Triplets who were infants, nonetheless. He marveled at how convincing she was. 'I want to check on Harrison' 'You'll do fine, Gris' she had told him 'You're a grown man! They're infants!'   
  
Grissom had never realized what kind of a weapon infants were. He questioned why the government hadn't been bringing infants over to Iraq to torture people and find out where Saddam and Osama were.   
  
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"We come bearing coffee. And a hot chocolate for the little miss." Warrick said, handing the coffee holder to Catherine who gave a cup to Sara, Greg, Nick and herself. Warrick handed Elle a Styrofoam cup filled with hot chocolate.  
  
"And a juice for the bravest boy I've ever met." Nick said, handing Harrison a cup of orange juice he had swiped off of a cart in the hallway.  
  
"So, how do you guys think Grissom is doing with the babies?" Greg asked, endlessly amused at the idea of his boss taking care of three small children.  
  
"I don't even want to think about it" Sara said, sipping her piping hot coffee.  
  
"Oh Sara, come on, have a little faith in Grissom" Catherine said, astonishing her friends and co-workers at how she swallowed the scorching liquid in one gulp. "What? Its not that hot, you guys are just a bunch of wimps." she said, throwing her empty Styrofoam cup in the waste paper backset.  
  
"Daddy?" Harrison asked, pulling the cup away from his mouth and staring at the contents inside of it.  
  
"What, Har?" Nick asked, looking at his son as he sat in his hospital bed.  
  
"This juice tastes funny." said Harrison, handing the cup over to his mother.  
  
"What are you talking about, its apple juice!" Nick said, looking at Sara as she took the cover off the juice and smelled it.  
  
"Nicky.. this isn't apple juice." Sara said, her expression changing from light and happy, to sickened and appalled.  
  
"What are you talking about, Sar?" he said, laughing, looking at Greg. "What else would it be besides apple juice?"   
  
"Nicky, its urine."   
  
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Hehe, OK, I added some humor because the last chapter or two were more depressing than the rest of the story. Read and review!   
  



	21. The Perfect Family

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
I didn't mean to gross anyone out with the last chapter, but I just felt like it was getting too heavy for my story. This is a happy story after all, and I just needed something to make it funny and light. Sorry if I disgusted you! ...........….............................................................. ...........….  
  
"Hey buddy, sorry for that. It looked like apple juice." Nick said, as he helped Harrison get his shoes on. Harrison had spent the night in the hospital, Sara sleeping on the couch in his room, and Nick and Elle taking the empty bed next to his.   
  
"Its OK Daddy" Harrison said, sucking on the lollipop the doctor had given him after his final examination.  
  
"Are you guys ready to go?" Sara asked, walking in with Elle after signing Harrison out at the receptionists desk.  
  
"Yeah, Mommy. Hey! Where'd Elle get that?" Harrison asked, eyeing the chocolate bar in Elle's hands.  
  
"Well, she felt bad that you got a lollipop and she didn't, and they were selling them for 50 cents down the hall, so I got her one." Sara explained, helping Harrison down off the bed.  
  
"That's no fair! I'm the one who got hit by the car!!" Harrison said, walking over to where Elle was standing.  
  
"Want a piece Harrison?" Elle asked, sweetly.  
  
"Really, Elle? You'll give me some?" said Harrison, slightly shocked by his sister's gratitude.  
  
"Sure, Harry. You got hit by a car, and you're my brother.. Here!" she said, breaking a piece off the end and handing it to Harrison.  
  
"Harrison, you might not want to eat that." Sara said, watching as her daughter handed him some of the candy bar.  
  
"Why not, Mommy?" Harrison asked, taking a bite out of his chunk of chocolate.  
  
"Because that's the end that fell on the floor" she said, causing Harrison to spit out the half-eaten chocolate onto the floor.  
  
"Harrison!!" Sara yelped, as Elle laughed.  
  
"Ew!! That's so gross, Elle. Is everyone trying to poison me?" Harrison asked. "First Daddy gives me the pee to drink, and now Elle gives me dirty chocolate!"  
  
"Harrison, no one's trying to kill you." Nick said, helping Sara clean the chocolate off the floor. "But buddy, come on, you have to admit, your sister doesn't share chocolate very much. That should've made you think twice about eating it."   
  
"I'm going to kill you, Elle!" Harrison exclaimed, running after his sister, ignoring the pain in his stomach.  
  
"Hey hey" Nick said, picking Elle up off the floor as she ran into his arms. "Come on, you just got hit by a car. You can't run around like that, not so soon."   
  
"Elle, once my ribs aren't broken anymore, I'm going to get you!" said Harrison, as Sara picked him up.  
  
"Oh, Harrison, don't be such a poophead!" Elle said, as they walked out of the hospital and towards the car.  
  
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As they walked into their home, they heard the crying of one baby and the noise of a frustrated Grissom.  
  
"Please, Ethan, I've asked you for the billionth time to please be quiet." Grissom pleaded with the young child, as he heard a knock on the door and saw Elle run in with Nick behind her.  
  
"Hey Gris" Nick said, patting the older man on the shoulder. "Here, give him to me."  
  
As Grissom handed the crying child to Nick, he asked "Nick, how's Harrison?"   
  
Nick looked from Ethan to Grissom. "Oh, he's fine. A few broken ribs, but overall, he'll pull through. He's a tough kid." Grissom nodded as Nick got back to tending to his son.  
  
"Hi baby" Elle said to Olivia, who was just waking up, as Grissom walked over to her.   
  
"Hey Elle" Grissom asked, rubbing the small girl's back.  
  
"Hi Uncle Grissom!" she exclaimed, wrapping her petite arms around his neck.   
  
"Are you being a good big sister?" Grissom asked, pulling at the t-shirt she was wearing, that he had given to her the day the babies were born.   
  
"Yeah, I'm doing really good." she said, looking back into the crib. "Uncle Grissom?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, sweetie?" he said, looking at her.  
  
"Do you think the babies know I'm their big sister?" she asked, as she put her pointer finger to rub her little sister's hand.   
  
"I think they know that you're someone very special, and someone that loves them very much. With time, they'll understand that you're their older sister - someone they can talk to and trust. But right now, I think they just know you as the pretty girl with the golden curls." Grissom asked, weaving his fingers through the back of her curls.   
  
"OK" she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek and running out of the room. Grissom followed her.  
  
"Hey Gris" Sara said, as they entered the living room where Sara was propping Harrison up on the couch. "Thanks for staying with the babies. Nick and I really do appreciate it."   
  
"No problem, Sara. They really weren't a problem." he said, thinking back to the little bit of time where he was intoxicated, but he liked to believe it was all a part of something he liked to call Grissom's Ways to Taking Care of Infants. "Hey Harrison, how are you feeling?"  
  
"OK, but Daddy made me drink pee and Elle gave me dirty chocolate" he said, resting his head on the pillow his mother had supplied him with. Grissom looked at Sara with a questioning eye.  
  
"I'll tell you about it later." Sara said, as she led Grissom to the door. "Really, thanks again for staying with them. I'm.. Nick and I are grateful that we have friends like you guys."   
  
"No problem, Sara. Really." he said, giving her a small hug and a kiss on the cheek. "I think you and Nick should take the next few days off, stay with Harrison, keep an eye on him."   
  
"Thanks Grissom. Bye." Sara said, closing the door.  
  
As she went back to the living room, she saw Harrison sleeping on the couch and Elle sleeping practically on top of him. She smiled, and went to tend to the children she had left for the first time by themselves overnight.  
  
"How are they?" Sara asked, as she watched Nick rock Ethan in the rocking chair.  
  
"They're perfect, just as you left them. You know, I didn't think you could be any more paranoid than you were when the twins were younger, but you cease to amaze me, Sara." he said, handing Ethan to her.   
  
"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." she said, cooing at her young son.  
  
"Where are the twins?" Nick asked, getting out of the rocking chair and stretching out.  
  
"They're sleeping in the living room. They were so tired." Sara said, as she placed Ethan back in his crib.  
  
"Yeah, Elle didn't get much sleep last night. Kept kicking me in the stomach and her hand kept slapping me in the face." he said, making Sara laugh as they walked into the living room.  
  
"Lets move them to their beds" Sara said, as they entered the living room.  
  
"Oh Sara, look at them." Nick said, gushing over the affection his twins had towards each other.  
  
"I know. The perfect family." she said.  
  
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Is this it? I don't know, maybe I'll find some sort of inspiration and update. Hmm.. you'll just have to wait and see. Read and review!! 


	22. Epilogue

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.  
  
I didn't like the ending that the story had taken on when I finished it, so I wrote this epilogue. Its about 17 years in the future, so Elle and Harrison are about 21 years old and the triplets are 17. Elle's basically talking about her family, and everything that's happened over the past seventeen years.  
  
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*Elle's POV*  
  
It stills amazes me to this day how my parents raised five children, all under the age of five, and both managed to stay somewhat sane. Sometimes I wonder if our family was what they had hoped we would be.  
  
After high school, I enrolled in medical school. Dr. Stokes. I still find that title incredibly funny. I got engaged a month ago to the man of my dreams - Cooper McKnight.   
  
Harrison had taken a year off after high school, and traveled around Europe. My parents were annoyed and upset, because he rarely checked in with them. He came home for Christmas, along with his new Italian girlfriend, Chiara. She's absolutely gorgeous, and we can't understand what she says half the time. We just nod.  
  
The triplets are still in high school.   
  
Benny is taller than me, and is on both the basketball and football teams. My father couldn't have been more proud that his son had developed his love for athletics.  
  
Livvie is our artist. She's been awarded so many times, that my parents had to store the awards in boxes due to lack of wall space. She's her own person, and doesn't care what people think about her. Sometimes I wish I had been like that in high school.  
  
Ethan is the science-whiz, just as Mom was. He's enrolling in college next year, a year earlier than all of his classmates. We're all very proud of him, especially Mom who feels, I guess, a scientific connection.  
  
My parents have been married 25 years. We threw a huge party for them, invited everyone they've ever known practically. Catherine and Lindsey came, along with Lindsey's husband Tyler and their twin daughters, Ava and Amanda. That's all Catherine and Mom ever talk about - the irony of Lindsey having twins just like my mom did.  
  
Uncle Grissom came. You can tell he's hopelessly in love with Catherine, he does the worst job at hiding it. I don't understand why they just don't admit it. It would make our lives a whole lot easier.  
  
Warrick came, with his son Anders. Unfortunately, Warrick wife, Michelle, died due to pregnancy complications. Anders turned five last month.  
  
And Greg. Greg.. my youth obsession. Its basically my only memory from childhood. That, and the day Mom had the triplets. As I grew up, Greg changed from the fun friend to the cute crush. I was shocked the day he and Carly had married. The week they had returned home from their honeymoon, she had found out she was expecting. All of the adults had joked about it, but at the time, I didn't understand any of the jokes. Now, I certainly do understand them. Yes I do.   
  
Carly gave birth to a girl. She named her after me. Elle Sanders.   
  
Its nice to know that even though we don't see each other as much as we used to, after everyone had babies and grew up, we can still all get together and its like we haven't even been apart that long.  
  
I love my family. All of them.. all seventeen of them.  
  
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Oh, I'm so much happier with this ending. Read and review. Hey, you never know. Maybe I'll write another story. 


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